Mirror

Product Information

Jeanne Baker’s unique collage art work using both natural and artificial materials such as sand, earth, clay, paints, vegetation, paper, fabric, wool, tin and plastic, creates a visually stunning display, both for little and big eyes. Even in the tiniest villages, a football field, often carefully outlined with large rocks, will always be in use. Designed to be looked at together it requires a lot of space to open it all up, but it’s totally worth it. I love learning about other cultures and this is a unique way to show that while both cultures are different, they still partake in the same things. While the right side is more calm and peaceful because of the desert land, the minimal people around, and the praying.

As is my usual working process, this started as little more than scribbles on a smallish sheet of paper, initially very much working on the book as a whole: drawing lots of oblongs within a sheet of paper, and imagining each as a double page spread within the book. In this unique book, the story of a family in Australia is paralleled with a family in Morocco using side-by-side open-out texts, the story entirely told in Baker's unique artwork.A wonderful, thought-provoking book, one that can teach about both human diversity and unity, Mirror is printed (title, introduction, afterword) in English on one side, and Arabic on the other, making this a book that truly can be appreciated by people from a wide variety of backgrounds. The backgrounds of the images are mostly blank spaces, making the images seem much more cavernous and helping the reader focus on the subjects. I was rapidly losing my body heat through my legs (I only wore a thin pair of trousers) Mohammed put my feet into the mule bags and stuffed a blanket around them; I felt much better. This resource provides Super Six activities on Mirror by Jeannie Baker, and is suitable for an upper primary classroom (approx Year 3-6).

Each year the labour gets harder as they need to travel further to find new suitable areas of grass. She creates two worlds, side by side, one that of a family living in a city in Australia, and the other that of a family living in Morocco, North Africa, with beautiful collages.From here, we would share our thoughts as as a whole-class, and I would emphasize the importance of seeing from multiple perspectives rather than just our own. It starts with the morning routines for each of the families, then it shows what seems to be their daily commute, in Australia, they are in a car stuck in traffic and in Morocco, they are riding a donkey through the desert. The simple truth is that even with all these differences, in the ways that really matter, we are all the same. When you open the book, two inner books sit side by side, one opening left to right (the Sydney story), and one opening right to left (the Morocco story), inviting you to read them side by side, thus highlighting the similarities and differences in the lives of the two families. It’s fair to say that Jeannie Baker went way beyond any criteria requirement with her story of two cultures, Mirror.

Jeannie Baker was able to mirror the lives of Americans with the lives of the Arab people in an insanely unique way.Geography and geology have fractured the Berber language into at least five mutually incomprehensible dialects. Later, these prized treasures are replaced by the computer monitor and keyboard: the other treasures being transferred to the window sill.

Yet with the journey of a homemade Moroccan carpet into the Australian boy's home, we can see how these separate lives become intertwined.We were both still half asleep and with the motion of the mule pushing us onward and sitting motionless astride its back, it felt as though we were being propelled through a dream. Consequently I decided to make a special trip to Taznakht, to try and understand the basic design and symbols underlying their carpets, which it seems the women in the Valley of Roses have been much influenced by. Once outside the main town of Kalaat M’Gouna, it’s a place where few tourists venture and a place rich with images and contrasts to western culture. There is a lot of communication between me and my British editor and designer, and as with this book, its usual for them to question various details and see ways in which I can communicate my ideas more effectively.