Awhile back I found a reader copy by Rajani LaRocca called Mirror to Mirror. I was interested in it due to the diverse characters and the prose poetry format. However, as I started reading (at lunch) it was going slowly, and I put it aside. I picked it up months later and was able to finish it finally. It was mostly worth the wait. I say mostly, as for me, there were a few bumps. I was not a fan of some characters, and a few pieces would not have been my choice, but work for the story LaRocca wishes to tell.
One plus and minus is that we have seen the concept before. We have siblings (twins) and how they function, or stop functioning, together. The two “mirrors” of the story are identical twins Maya and Chaya. One day, Maya accidentally breaks a mirror, and her younger brother almost dies. For the next seven years Maya’s fear of “seven years bad luck” haunts her (every time something goes wrong, she feels she causes it). Not to mention the pressure she feels placed on her from her family, friends, classmates, teachers, and others to be perfect. The pressure of not allowing yourself to become the fodder for the Aunties at Temples gossip. The fear that is she is not perfect, more horrible things will happen. But then there is Chaya, the second sister. The spare, the one who was given the name to keep the rhyme, the one who always follows. It is not until Maya’s secret becomes too big for either of them, that she decides to separate herself from her sister. Afterall, if Maya has one less thing to worry about, she will get better, right? What happens instead is the two girls find themselves, and each other, in ways they never imagined.
The ending was not completely to my tastes, but the age group reading will enjoy the twist, and will enjoy the family dynamic of two sisters, who are learning that they do not have to be mirror images; yet still be connected. It is about the family dynamic of the father and mother. It is about the dynamic of the mother trying to be perfect herself and passing that along to her daughter. It is the dynamic of three siblings. And in the end, it is about walking in another person’s shoes
