The Reflection in Me

The Reflection in Me, the much anticipated follow up to When Things Aren’t Going Right, Go Left, is once again a lovely collaboration between Marc Colagiovanni and Peter H. Reynolds. The short story features a child standing in front of the mirror, having a conversation with the reflection. The reflection initiates the conversation by claiming, “I like being you”, and proceeds to compliment the child about various physical, emotional, mental, and character traits throughout the story. The child, often taken aback, humbled, or dubious of the compliments, eventually begins to accept, agree with, and feel confident about the statements the reflection is making. The child even pays a couple compliments to the reflection. Colagiovanni ends the book with a beautifully painted mirror with and equally beautiful message written within: “May you always see your self as you truly are… perfectly perfect.”

Reynolds kept the artwork exceeding simple within The Reflection in Me to have maximum impact; the child, wearing plain, white clothing and with brown skin and curly, dark hair, faces a gold framed mirror with the reflection looking the exact same (though in all purple tones). The purple reflection is echoed by the purple text, which represents the reflection’s words to the child (whose words are in black). The background starts off as a pale wash of lilac, grey, and white, and changes slightly each page to become more pronounced or to incorporate more colours as the child begins to become more accepting and enthusiastic about the reflection’s compliments. Colagiovanni’s text uses copious similes which can be excellent teaching tools for children of all ages to learn about the concept, brainstorm about their own characteristics in similes, and expand that learning into other avenues. The Reflection in Me carries an important message to readers about finding the positive attributes about oneself and being sure to acknowledge and celebrate these traits on a regular basis.

Once again, as with When Things Aren’t Going Right, Go Left, Colagiovanni glosses over the idea of self-doubt or insecurities; indeed, the concept is never mentioned or even reflected in Reynolds’ illustrations beyond the cover page which depicts the child in a somewhat dejected posture with head tilted towards the floor and eyes closed. The reflection, on the title page, is mirroring the child’s position, though with hands behind the back as opposed to at the sides, but is looking hopefully up at the child, waiting for recognition or an opening to begin the conversation. Though the omission of the serious topic of self-doubt or insecurities is understandable, given this is a book geared towards younger children, it is a weakness of this publication. Many may not even notice the illustration on the title page as it’s often a page that is ‘skipped over’. The Reflection in Me would have been much more powerful had it included elements of the child’s verbalization of insecurities or worries and the responding positive compliments from the reflection which is very obviously the child’s inner voice or self.

This singular limitation makes The Reflection in Me best suited towards younger grades – probably Kindergarten to Grade 3. Mature grade 3 students might already begin to find the glossed-over nature of the subject matter to be too unrealistic to thoroughly enjoy the book as they may already understand the impact of self-doubt and insecurities and deal with them daily. Don’t let this one exclusion from the book make you consider passing on The Reflection in Me though; it is absolutely worth the purchase and should belong to all collections because of the significant overall message it conveys: We are all perfect, just as we are, and we should make efforts to acknowledge and celebrate that every day.