Overview
Some guys are bad news
Sixteen-year-old Maggy's life consists of trying to be invisible at school, taking care of her alcoholic mother, and spending all the time she can at the Blue Mirror, a downtown café. She can lose herself there for hours with a cappuccino and her sketchbook, in which she creates a paper world she calls "The Blue Mirror." But everything changes when she meets Cole, a charismatic runaway. Maggy is intrigued by Cole's risky life on the streets and by the girls who follow him, childlike Jouly and strange Marianne. And when Cole says that he loves her, Maggy comes alive. As Maggy becomes more entwined with Cole and she looks at him with all her heart, she sees something far more dangerous than she may be capable of handling.
In poetic and evocative language, Kathe Koja draws us into the haunting, passionate world of The Blue Mirror.
Seventeen-year-old loner Maggy Klass, who frequently seeks refuge from her alcoholic mother's apartment by sitting and drawing in a local cafe, becomes involved in a destructive relationship with a charismatic homeless youth named Cole.
Synopsis
Some guys are bad news
Sixteen-year-old Maggy's life consists of trying to be invisible at school, taking care of her alcoholic mother, and spending all the time she can at the Blue Mirror, a downtown café. She can lose herself there for hours with a cappuccino and her sketchbook, in which she creates a paper world she calls "The Blue Mirror." But everything changes when she meets Cole, a charismatic runaway. Maggy is intrigued by Cole's risky life on the streets and by the girls who follow him, childlike Jouly and strange Marianne. And when Cole says that he loves her, Maggy comes alive. As Maggy becomes more entwined with Cole and she looks at him with all her heart, she sees something far more dangerous than she may be capable of handling.
In poetic and evocative language, Kathe Koja draws us into the haunting, passionate world of The Blue Mirror.
Publishers Weekly
The title takes on many connotations in Koja's (Buddha Boy) eerie, psychologically gripping urban tale. The Blue Mirror doubles as the name of the caf where narrator Maggy Klass seeks refuge from the claustrophobic apartment she shares with her mostly drunk mother, but it also becomes the filter through which she begins to see clearly the world outside-and herself. Her only friend, Casey, works at the caf ; Maggy's booth is "the one right under the window, blue-tinted window almost as big as the wall, showing caf and street in equal reflections." From her perch she draws everything she sees, and signs her drawings "mags" ("mags is my secret name, my alias or nom de plume or whatever an artist would call it... even Casey doesn't know about mags"). One winter day, she spies "Prince Charming on a street corner." After a time, she discovers his name, Cole, and he leads her out of her sacred space in the Blue Mirror to his world of the streets. Koja creates an indeterminate urban setting, grounded in specifics. Cole takes Maggy to the Wishing Well, where he compares its ice crystals to "trapped stars"; he shows her the riverbank where the "skwatters" stay; and he calls her mags ("How do you know my name?"). The novel teems with characters that possess the same kind of edgy, dangerous magic as Francesca Lia Block's creations, and, like Block, Koja explores the confusion between infatuation and real love-in all its cruelty and its redemptive powers. Ages 12-up. (Mar.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
The title takes on many connotations in Koja's (Buddha Boy) eerie, psychologically gripping urban tale. The Blue Mirror doubles as the name of the caf where narrator Maggy Klass seeks refuge from the claustrophobic apartment she shares with her mostly drunk mother, but it also becomes the filter through which she begins to see clearly the world outside-and herself. Her only friend, Casey, works at the caf ; Maggy's booth is "the one right under the window, blue-tinted window almost as big as the wall, showing caf and street in equal reflections." From her perch she draws everything she sees, and signs her drawings "mags" ("mags is my secret name, my alias or nom de plume or whatever an artist would call it... even Casey doesn't know about mags"). One winter day, she spies "Prince Charming on a street corner." After a time, she discovers his name, Cole, and he leads her out of her sacred space in the Blue Mirror to his world of the streets. Koja creates an indeterminate urban setting, grounded in specifics. Cole takes Maggy to the Wishing Well, where he compares its ice crystals to "trapped stars"; he shows her the riverbank where the "skwatters" stay; and he calls her mags ("How do you know my name?"). The novel teems with characters that possess the same kind of edgy, dangerous magic as Francesca Lia Block's creations, and, like Block, Koja explores the confusion between infatuation and real love-in all its cruelty and its redemptive powers. Ages 12-up. (Mar.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.Children's Literature
As Oprah says, "Everyone has a story," even the young people who wander the streets in bizarre get-ups and you are thinking, "Why aren't they in school?" Sixteen year-old Maggy is just such a person. Living anything but ordinary life, Maggy is the responsible person looking out for her alcoholic mother. Her father has left them to fend for themselves, so Maggy spends a lot of her time at the local coffeehouse, The Blue Mirror, sketching the characters that come and go as a way to escape reality. Overwhelmed by loneliness and anomie, she is drawn to a boy she has seen among the homeless street people. Cole is handsome and sure of himself and has noticed Maggy in her favorite booth. Maggy is drawn into his coterie of homeless girls similar in age to Maggy. At first, Maggy is duped by the attention and "love" that Cole shows her, but as she gets to know him better she begins to see him for what he is. This interesting story of a teen on her journey to adulthood provides a taste of reality and illuminates the complex rather than simple choices that face teens daily. Using some adult themes and language, the story ends on a positive note with the help of others who truly care about Maggy. 2004, Farrar Straus & Giroux, Ages 14 to 18.—Meredith Kiger, Ph.D.
KLIATT
Koja writes with great artistry—her words sometimes work as brushes creating paintings; her prose is close to poetry. This works well in her acclaimed YA novel Buddha Boy, about artists. The Blue Mirror is also about an adolescent artist who loses herself in the world she calls the Blue Mirror, the world she creates through her drawings. Maggie is 17 years old, confused and lonely as she lives with her alcoholic mother. She likes to hang out in a café in the evenings, escaping her home life that isn't a home life. It's there that she becomes aware of the homeless young people living on the streets, stealing, getting drugs, living on the edges of Maggie's world. She draws them. She sees a beautiful young man and can't resist getting to know him, falling in love with him, disregarding his weaknesses and his power over young street girls. Strangely, she is unable to draw him—a symptom of her blindness as to his true nature. Her friend at the café warns her, but she can't see the truth. When the young man, Cole, invades the home Maggie and her mother share, then Maggie begins to see that she doesn't belong to him really. Her eyes are opened and she is horrified at the cruelty with which he controls the girls around him. At this point, she is able to capture him in a drawing. The world on the streets that Maggie enters briefly is a dark one. She has casual sex with Cole, powerless to resist him. There are drugs, petty crimes, hunger, loneliness, disease, lost souls. This is a brief and powerful story. It is understandable that Maggie is drawn to Cole and his life, because she too feels she has no real home. Fortunately, she is strong enough to pull back before beingswallowed up by Cole and his destructive ways. There will be an audience for this fine short work of fiction. KLIATT Codes: S—Recommended for senior high school students. 2004, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 119p., Ages 15 to 18.—Claire Rosser
VOYA
At sixteen, Maggie does not have a lot in her life—an alcoholic mother, a missing father, and no interest in school—so she spends most of her time drawing in her sketchbook at the Blue Mirror, a downtown café, and takes pride in her talent to see people. When Cole, a street youth, shows an interest in her drawing, Maggie believes that he is the only person who will understand and love her. But Cole uses Maggie for meals, steals from her mother, tricks her into shoplifting, and finally gets her thrown out of the Blue Mirror, her refuge. Only when she recognizes how Cole manipulates and controls, can Maggie finally see and draw the real Cole in her sketchbook. Koja chooses to write Maggie's story in a disjointed voice. The rambling sentences, while providing a distinct voice for Maggie's thoughts, become more difficult to push through as one delves further into the book. Koja's use of slang—street youth are "skwatters"—can be distracting. Nevertheless she doesn't hold back when it comes to portraying homelessness—cold, hungry, dirty, dangerous. Readers will recognize Cole's threat much earlier than Maggie does and will be pleased when, even though Maggie's home life is no better by the end of the story, she finally finds strength in herself and not on the streets. VOYA Codes: 3Q 4P J (Readable without serious defects; Broad general YA appeal; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9). 2004, Farrar Straus Giroux, 128p., Ages 12 to 15.—Joyce Doyle