Echo Echo: Reverso Poems About Greek Myths

Recently our family has been enjoying a wonderful picture book, Echo Echo: Reverso Poems About Greek Myths. Greek myth mixed with poetry..what’s not to love? 

I admit that upon the arrival of this book I wasn’t 100% sure the boys would love it,  but I was completely wrong.  My five-year now has this book placed in his favorite stack and we are reading it at least twice daily.

As if Greek myths aren’t awesome as a stand alone, Echo Echo brings beautifully detailed illustrations to go hand in hand with the reverso poems.  Did you catch that? Remember, I mentioned that this was a book of poems, but the unique thing about this book is it isn’t the “typical” poetry.  The form of poetry used in this book is called reverso.  I admit that I adore poetry, but this is the first time we have experienced reverso and it was a hit.

What exactly are reverso poems?
A reverso consists of two poems. You read the first poem from top to bottom. Then, you read the poem again with the lines reversed, with changes only in punctuation and capitalization, and the second poem says something completely different.

About the book:
There are two sides to every story-especially the Greek myths. From Perseus and Medusa to Arachne and Athena, gods and mortals rarely see eye-to-eye.

In this third collection of ingenious reverso poems, Marilyn Singer brings classic myths to new and vivid life. When read from top to bottom, each poem tells a well-known story from a world of heroes and monsters. When read in reverse, however, the very same words convey a whole new point a view.

We have truly enjoyed this book. I would highly recommend this to anyone that is a fan of Greek myths or to someone that wants to start introducing Greek myths to their children.