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key_lime_cake's review
adventurous
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I always enjoyed reading William Sleator's books but I never knew very much about him. This book was definitely odd and I guess I can see where he got his crazy imagination from. Sometimes the stories were just funny and lighthearted and other times the joking seemed more like bullying. I couldn't decide whether or not I would have liked him and his siblings.
hnbb's review
4.0
My MIL discarded this book and I picked it up. Turns out, I read this book when it came out. I got it from the library and laughed my way through it. It is still enjoyable, but I have a very different perspective than 12 year old me did.
elspethm's review
5.0
Since I love William Sleator books, I bought this one and used to read it to my kids when they were smaller. We loved his brother's comment "No baby!" Very funny family stories from Sleator's life.
labraden's review
4.0
William Sleator, acclaimed writer of middle grade fiction, brings his childhood to life in a series of humorous anecdotes about the memorable events he and his family lived through while he was growing up in the late 1950s through the heart of the 1960s. We learn about his unconventional parents - Mom, a pediatrician and Dad, a physiology professor - along with his sister and two brothers. From pretending to be BMs by wrapping up in brown blankets to his sister at 5 years old announcing to their dad's boss and his wife that the pile of sand in the backyard was "a shit pit" because all of the cats and dogs in the neighborhood that used it. Describing he and his sister as the first hippies at their high school, their behavior was purposely shocking. Popping ABC (Already Been Chewed) gum from under school drinking fountains into their mouths, chewing happily, they made sure the "pituh" or pitifully popular kids, observed them and were properly disgusted. Sleator attributes the fact that, as adults, he and his siblings never base their behavior on what other people think of them to these uncommon early years. Overall, a truly enjoyable account of a unique family.
stefanieh's review against another edition
4.0
Light entertainment. These days child protective services would be all over the parents.
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