The Child in the Mirror

This is a picture book of Taiwanese poetry for children written in collaboration with the poet Xiang Yang with drawings by Jimmy Liao. Phonetic notation provided by the Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols.

The book cleverly uses the mirror to explore lexical concepts like front and back, left and right, big and small, inside and out, far and near, like and unlike, others and the self from the perspective of children learning to build a self-image in a mirror. This book is a rare gem among Taiwanese children's books.

Xiang Yang has long been a respected poet in the world of Taiwanese poetry for many years, and this collection of ten children's poems are some of his favorite work. He cleverly uses the notion of the mirror stage in psychologist Jacques Lacan's psychoanalytic theory and incorporates it into the lively tones, rhythms, and rhymes of the Taiwanese language, helping children to learn both language and philosophy in a fun way.

‧ The Child in the Mirror (Chinese version) is also available.