Mirror Image by Lena Coakley

🧠 1. The Setup: A Groundbreaking Surgery

Fourteen-year-old Alice is involved in a terrible accident. To save her life, doctors perform a major, futuristic surgery: a brain transplant. 🏥

Alice wakes up with her own mind and memories, but she is now living inside the body of a sixteen-year-old girl named Gail Jarred, who passed away.

🪞 2. The Struggle: Who Am I Now?

Even though Alice survived, adjusting to her new life is incredibly difficult. She faces three main challenges:

Her Own Reflection 🕶️: Alice doesn't recognize herself. She wears sunglasses to hide her new eyes and avoids looking in mirrors.
Changes in Taste 🎂: She realizes her new body likes different things, like no longer enjoying the taste of her favorite birthday cake.
Outside Pressure 📺: Gail’s mother goes on television and claims that her daughter is still alive inside the body.

👯‍♀️ 3. Character Focus: Alice and Jenny

Before the accident, Alice and her twin sister Jenny were completely identical. They shared everything, including a secret diary. 📓 Now, their relationship is broken.

Jenny struggles to look at Alice. She hides the diary and admits that she feels like her real twin sister died in the accident. 💔 This hurts Alice deeply, as she desperately wants her sister to see that she is still the same person inside.

🗝️ 4. Key Symbols in the Story

Mirrors & Reflections: These represent Alice's search for her true self. Whenever she looks in a mirror, she sees a stranger instead of the girl she feels like on the inside.
Sunglasses: Alice uses these as a shield to hide her new face from the world and protect her from having to look at things too closely.
Wet Sidewalk Cement: This represents a fresh start and a permanent mark. By writing in it, Alice proves that she exists and knows who she is.

✨ 5. The Climax & Ending

One day, Alice accidentally runs into Mr. Jarred (the father of the girl whose body Alice now has). He is shocked to see her, but he looks closely into her eyes. 👀

He tells Alice that he does not see his daughter in her eyes. This makes Alice remember something her own dad used to say: "The eyes are the mirror of the soul."

Hearing this helps Alice finally accept herself. She walks away feeling confident and carves her real initials (ACS) into wet cement, proving she is still Alice. ✍️

💬 Classroom Discussion Questions

🤔 Question 1: What makes you, YOU? If someone had your exact brain and memories, but looked completely different, would they still be you?

Possible Answer: Students might argue that true identity comes from memories, personality, and the mind (which Alice still has). Others might point out that our physical body changes how the world treats us, which can eventually change who we become.

🤔 Question 2: How does it feel when the people closest to you, like your family, treat you differently? Why was it so hard for Jenny to accept Alice?

Possible Answer: It feels isolating and lonely. For Jenny, being an identical twin was her whole identity. Looking at Alice and seeing a stranger is a constant, painful reminder of the trauma and what she lost physically, even if Alice's mind survived.

🤔 Question 3: Why do you think Alice's dad said "the eyes are the mirror of the soul"? Do you agree with this?

Possible Answer: The eyes are often seen as the most expressive part of a person, showing true emotions, kindness, or fear regardless of outward physical appearance. Mr. Jarred realized Gail's "soul" was gone because the spark in the eyes belonged to Alice.

🤔 Question 4: At the very end of the story, why was it so important for Alice to write her initials in the wet cement? What did that action mean to her?