Oddballs

By William Sleator

Book Overview

The author of such reliably offbeat sf thrillers as Strange Attractors (1990) radically changes pace for ten hilarious, semi- autobiographical stories. With affection and a splendid sense of comic... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140374388
• Release Date: June 1995
• Publisher: Puffin Books
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 4.4" x 7.3"

Customer Reviews

Brilliant

This is a very hilarious book about William Sleator's chilidhood. The book is a lot like a journal of someone's life. It goes through the sad, fortunate and sad things in chilidhood. The author uses dialy scenaries and explains what he and his siblings did about them. It contains simple funny memories that are very hard not to laugh at. I particularly liked how it uses a lot of adjectices in describing the characters. It is amazing how Sleator remembers these chilidhood occurances. If you want comedy read this book! You won't regret it. I

Great Book for relunctant readers.

I'm constantly at my 11 year son to read and I'm always on the lookout for books that will keep him interested and foster a love of books. Someone suggested that William Sleator would do the trick. He thought the book was hysterical and it made for a great summer read for him. I would suggest it for anyone trying to get a boy to read.

Oddballs

I thought this book was excellent because it was about William Sleator and his family with real funny stories. One of the things that I thinkabout this book was that you don't know if the stories William Sleator is telling are reaaly true until the end of the book.William Sleator shares strange and wacky stories about growing up with his mother,farther,his brothers,Danny and Tycho,and his sister vicky. For example ,William's family never took care of their front yard because they only used their backyard,so they never mowed or planted anything in it. The dad,a physicist,used to blindfold the kids and take them for a ride in the car. He would then drop them off in an unfamiliar area and tell them to find their way home. William's dad would give them one dime to cll home if they could not find their way. This was a weekend game they sometimes played. A positive effect I thought this book might have on its reader is to teach kids that it's ok to not be popular. William Sleator said that people should like you for the way you are, not the way you look or how athletic you are. William and his friends were in an unpopular group because they chose to be happy the way they were. They still had fun. One thing I thought might have a negative effect on readers would have to be stories Sleator tells about him, his sister, Vicky, and their friends doing "pituh-plays". William Sleator says "pituh-plays" are skits "often inspired by real people or situations or by unpopular movies and books". One of the meanest "pituh-plays" they ever played was with Vicki and her friends. They went to a fountain at a park with a watermelon wrapped up like a baby. They pretended to be mad and yelled at the baby (watermelon), held it over the fountain, and then threw it in. The watermelon juice would look like blood at first. Some people watching would call the police. I thought this book was great, but it was a little too short. I would love to hear more funny and exciting things that happened to William Sleator and his family.

i loved the stories and wished i was part of the family

this book made me want to do everything the characters did. from wrapping up a watermelon in a baby's blanket and pretending it was a baby then throwing it in a pool to see what everyone's reaction would be; to having my dad drop me off in the middle of town, letting me find my way home; or having a seance in a half-built playhouse in my backyard and recording voices to play from under the table. i even tried dying my hair with kool-aid after i read this book. i would reccomend this book to anyone who has a sick sense of humor. as strange and even disturbing as this family was i wish i was a part of it.

Laugh-out-loud material!

After only one page, I was laughing as loud as I could. Not all of the book is this funny, in fact some of it is downright disturbing, but it is one of the most fun reads I've had. Like all of Sleator's books, it is quick and easy. Just a good experience