The Green Bronze Mirror by Lynne Ellison

15 year old Karen is exploring the sea side when she finds an ancient looking mirror in the sand. Now everyone knows that if you find an old mirror, do not stare into it. Of course Karen does and she is transported through time to ancient Rome. Some solders happen upon her and believe she is a runaway slave.

She is taken to a house where she is given to a slave to give her decent clothes and to wash her. Shorts and a tee shirt were very odd clothes indeed. She was taken to the market place and sold. She was a slave to Mistress Julia and was made to take care of Julia's two children. She made friends with some of the other slaves and fell for a older slave boy, Kleon.

Christianity was a new religion back then and when the fires started and destroyed home after home, the Christians were blamed and persecuted. Karen and Kleon flee together to avoid persecution. Eventually Karen confesses to Kleon that she is from the future and he helps her find her way back.

Lynne Ellison wrote this short young adult novel in 1966, when she was just a teenager. It was just re-issued in 2009 by CnPosner Books. The copy I received was a final copy, not an advance reader edition. However, page after page I found spelling errors and word omissions. Instead of fixing these, the publisher has all of the errors listed on their website and invite readers to notify them of any other errors they may have missed. Though I really enjoyed the story, I found these errors rather annoying. I know it costs money to reprint books but I feel that it is unprofessional and does not do Lynne Ellison's good story justice.

Karen told Kleon that the time that she lives in everyone in the world is Christian and how wonderful it is. There is no persecution. I guess this is also suppose to be Christian fantasy novel, because the world I live in, not everyone is Christian and there are still all kinds of people who get persecuted because of their religion. That said, I did like Karen as a character and I liked the story of her as a slave. The story took place when the Roman Empire was ruled by Nero and Ms. Ellison did bring the ancient time to life.

3/5

Note: The publisher just informed me that they did a new printing of the book to correct all the the errors.