ACL

Association of Children's Librarians

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • About
  • Calendar
    • Institute 2020
    • Past Institutes
    • Performers’ Showcase
  • Resources
    • Storytime Ideas
    • Read-alikes
    • Reviews
    • Programming Ideas
    • Professional Development
    • Distinguished Books Lists
    • More…
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Join

Review

Review of the Week

obsidianFisher, Catherine.  Obsidian Mirror.  Fic.  Chronoptika Series.  Dial, 2013. 384p. $17.99. 978-0-8037-3969-7.  OUTSTANDING.  GRADES 8-12.

Oberon Venn, famous explorer and adventurer, owns a time machine: an obsidian mirror with the power to literally suck people out of the present and into the past. Living as a recluse in his ancestral home, Whitcome Abbey, Venn is obsessed with traveling back in time to save his wife from her tragic death. His seclusion is disrupted by the arrival of his teenage godson, Jake, and soon other characters show up unexpectedly: a girl from the future who bears an eerie resemblance to Venn’s wife, a scar-faced man who owned the mirror in the Victorian era, and a sinister fairy queen waiting for her chance to possess Venn, body and soul. The reader will identify most with the Everyman character in the story, a high school teacher, who reacts as any rational person would to the crazy games with time and magic going on at the abbey. Fisher, author of Incarceron (2010), has created another page-turner with well-developed characters and a keen sense of historical setting, science fiction, and fantasy. Review based on an ARC.

Katrina Bergen, Dixon PL

Published on Jul 10, 2013
Posted by: pennypeck
Tags: Catherine Fisher, Obsidian Mirror
Review of the Week »
« Review of the Week

Recent Posts

  • Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre Review
  • SFPL Offers Special Author Events
  • Gone to the Woods Read-Alikes
  • Birds Storytime – Revised
  • Cousins Review

Sign up to receive our blog and other updates by email.

Blog updates
Sending

Categories

  • ACL Events
  • Awards
  • Board Book Round Up
  • Media Watch
  • Message from ACL
  • News
  • Obituary
  • Out of the Ordinary
  • Outstanding Books of the Month
  • Professional Development
  • Programming Ideas
  • Review
  • San Francisco Public Library
  • storytime
  • Updates
  • Website of the Month

Tags

2018 Summer Reading 2019 Summer Reading ACL BayNews ACL Institute ACL Meeting ALA Conference ALSC American Library Association Arne Nixon Center Bay Area Storytelling Festival BayNews Beatty Award Board books Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards Caldecott Medal Children's Fairyland CLA Common Core Do-It-Yourself Programs Dorothy Helfeld Fellowships Dr. Seuss Edgar Awards fantasy Flap books Infopeople Jacqueline Woodson Kate DiCamillo Mary Ann Scheuer Maurice Sendak Michael Cart National Book Award National Book Awards Newbery Medal Oakland Public Library outstanding Performers' Showcase Pop-up books School Library Journal Storytelling Storytime Summer Reading Summer Reading Program Sydney Taylor Awards Walter Dean Myers We Need Diverse Books

Archives

  • 2021
    • February
    • January
  • 2020
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2019
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2018
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2017
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2016
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2015
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2014
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2013
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2012
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2011
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2010
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2009
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2008
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2007
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • July
    • June
    • April
    • February
    • January
  • 2006
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • March
    • February
  • 2005
    • December
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • March
  • 2004
    • December
    • September
    • January
  • 2003
    • October
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • February
    • January
  • 2002
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • May
  • 2001
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • March
    • February
  • 2000
    • December
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • June
    • May
    • March
    • January
  • 1999
    • December
    • November

© Copyright 1999 - 2021 Association of Children's Librarians of Northern California · All Rights Reserved · Log In