Backward Glass

by David Lomax

Overview

“Help me make it not happen, Kenny. Help me stop him.”

When Kenny Maxwell moves into his family’s new yet falling apart Victorian home in 1977, he makes a shocking discovery in the carriage house. Buried inside the wall is a baby’s mummified body wrapped in old newspaper, along with a handwritten plea for help.

Soon after his gruesome finding, a beautiful girl named Luka introduces Kenny to the backward glass, a mirror that allows him to travel in time. Through it, he meets other “mirror kids” from past and future decades. But the more Kenny learns about the mirror, the more he realizes that Prince Harming—a dangerous urban legend who kidnaps and kills children—is hunting him. Somehow he must use the backward glass to confront his destiny, save the baby, and stop Prince Harming before time runs out.

Praise:
"Get ready to slide down into the past with David Lomax's Backward Glass. It's cold on the way down, hot on the way up into the future, and it is always, always riveting, no matter which direction in time he takes his courageous and intelligent teenagers. I'd read this again and again. Actually, the future me has already done so, I can assure you."—CHRISTOPHER BARZAK, AUTHOR OF ONE FOR SORROW

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780738737515
Publisher:	North Star Editions
Publication date:	10/08/2013
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.80(d)
Lexile:	HL690L (what's this?)
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

David Lomax (Toronto, Canada) was born in Scotland and moved to Canada at age eight. He currently divides his time between four great passions: writing, reading, teaching high-school English, and his wonderful family. Backward Glass is his debut novel.

Read an Excerpt

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Editorial Reviews

09/23/2013
A dead baby and a decades-old list bearing Kenny Maxwell’s name and birthday impel the 14-year-old on a quest through time that teaches him about sacrifice and justice. Luka, a girl living in 1987, visits Kenny in 1977 to explain how he can travel backward and forward in time via a mirror in his new home. The novel’s quest theme involves standard elements of initiation (Kenny’s initial ignorance about time travel) and purity of purpose (the travelers attempt to prevent the death of the infant), but the inclusion of a dialect-spouting Scotsman from the 17th-century and the inanely named Prince Harming provide a knockabout adult presence. Although the somewhat arbitrary rules of time travel (e.g., “From an even-numbered decade, you can go back on even-numbered days”) complicate the narrative, debut novelist Lomax handles the plot’s complexities with skill as the story builds toward a satisfying resolution that offers the hope of redemption and the promise that, while much of life is beyond one’s control, it’s still possible to influence one’s destiny. Ages 12–up. Agent: Katie Grimm, Don Congdon Associates. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Backward Glass is full of suspense and details. Readers will find themselves enthralled as Kenny, the main character, bravely attempts to solve a creepy riddle and do the right thing. Though at times it is a little disturbing and difficult to keep track of so many characters throughout the time-traveled years, this novel will keep readers thinking and will appeal to teens who enjoy science fiction. Reviewer: Maia Raynor, Teen Reviewer

VOYA - Maia Raynor

It is 1977 when fifteen-year-old Kenny Maxwell discovers the corpse of an infant behind the wall of the carriage house he and his father are renovating. What is even stranger is that the baby is swaddled in fabric from the 1960s and a newspaper from 1947, and the infant died earlier than that. There is also a list of names and corresponding years that includes Kenny's name and birth date and a note asking him to help "make it not happen." Not long after that, a teen girl named Luka appears in his bedroom, claiming to be from the year 1987, and shows him the time travel power of the old mirror that came with his house. As they set out to solve the murder mystery, they meet the other teens on the list from decades past. The time travel elements of this novel are complex, and the rules of who can travel backward or forward in time—and the number of characters Kenny meets along the way—make this a difficult novel to follow on a detailed level. On a big-picture level, the story is good, and the main characters are noble in their quest. Some twists, such as to who is who at different ages, are good surprises. There will not be wide appeal for this title, but teens looking for novels that have a folktale feel or those specifically involving time travel will find merit in Backward Glass. Reviewer: Deena Viviani

VOYA - Deena Viviani

★ 2013-09-15
Intricate, lusciously creepy paranormal mystery. It's 1977, and 15-year-old Kenny Maxwell has just moved into the weird old Hollerith place. While helping his dad renovate the carriage house, Kenny finds a dead, mummified baby in the wall. And right there with the baby, he finds something even creepier: a list of years, names and birthdates starting in 1917 and going through 2017. Right there, labeled "1977," it lists Kenny's own name and birthdate. It's not long before Kenny starts meeting the other names on the list, as the carriage house (now an inexpertly blocked-off crime scene) also hosts a magic mirror that empowers one kid in every generation with the ability to go backward or forward a decade. Luka is only 7 in Kenny's time, but she is 16 when he meets her through the mirror, and when she brings him forward to her own time and shows him Nintendo, it's a revelation. As Kenny starts to figure out the time-travel rules (aided both by his fellow travelers and by notes he leaves himself from the future), he becomes convinced he can save that mummified baby. Readers sadly accustomed to slapdash plotting may well be forgiven for their shock that all the plot threads come together, brilliantly. Following the complex threads of adventure as they come together through the multitude of intertwined journeys is a joy. (Paranormal mystery. 13-15)

Kirkus Reviews