The mirror planet

by Eve Bunting

On a televiewer, Andy discovers another self who can tell him what will happen up to eight days in the future. The possibilities seem exciting until disaster strikes.

Genres: Science Fiction

35 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1992

About the author

Also known as Evelyn Bolton and A.E. Bunting.

Anne Evelyn Bunting, better known as Eve Bunting, is an author with more than 250 books. Her books are diverse in age groups, from picture books to chapter books, and topic, ranging from Thanksgiving to riots in Los Angeles. Eve Bunting has won several awards for her works.

Bunting went to school in Ireland and grew up with storytelling. In Ireland, “There used to be Shanachies… the shanachie was a storyteller who went from house to house telling his tales of ghosts and fairies, of old Irish heroes and battles still to be won. Maybe I’m a bit of a Shanchie myself, telling stories to anyone who will listen.” This storytelling began as an inspiration for Bunting and continues with her work.

In 1958, Bunting moved to the United States with her husband and three children. A few years later, Bunting enrolled in a community college writing course. She felt the desire to write about her heritage. Bunting has taught writing classes at UCLA. She now lives in Pasadena, California.

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 1 out of 5]

This story is about a kid who has a ham radio or something and gets to talk to a version of himself that exists 8 days in the future. The first thing he does it realize how annoying he is and start to make a list of things he hates about his alternate self so he can train himself to have friends other than Fat Garrett or whatever his name is. The kid is fat too. Eve Bunting loves to write fat characters and make that a mark of shame. There is literally no point to the story for these boys to be fat, but she makes them fat and then write little digs about how that makes them shitty people.

Anyway turns out the kid and his alternate find out their communication is causing it to rain in Southern California and there can be no other explanation for all that rain because it never rains in Southern California so they stop talking. Once again nobody learns any lessons and the kid is still a total asshole at the end. Eve Bunting is the master of writing unlikable characters with absolutely no arc.

Scott and Uma both hated this book.

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

I made a list of everything that I find annoying about myself and this book is right at the top of it. You think I'm a dum-dum? Well, the last time I messed with spacetime it rained a lot and school was canceled. That's no way to live life! Chris and Christopher need to get some exercise now bye.

[H. Givens · Rating 2 out of 5]

Basically a short story about a boy talking to his mirror image eight days in the future. He uses foreknowledge to make himself popular, but is their connection causing a freak downpour, or worse?

The characters are so-so. The plotting is really great and suspenseful for most of the story, but the payoff wasn't really there.