Best Selling Books by William Sleator

The Sleators are not your average family . . . When author William “Billy” Sleator was growing up, life was a never-ending adventure. The best presents his parents ever gave him and his sister, Vicky, were 2 younger brothers, Danny and Tycho. The 4 siblings delighted in playing pranks on one another and on their unsuspecting friends and neighbors. The children’s mother and father also liked to joke around. Their mom, who was a pediatrician, came up with a witty name for the kids’ drama club: the Parkview Traumatic Club. Their dad, who was a physiologist, would sometimes blindfold Billy, along with his sister and brothers, and take them for a ride—dropping them off in an unfamiliar place and telling them to find their way back with only a single dime to make a phone call. Whether he’s regaling us with tall tales about hypnotism and séances, riffing on his family’s deepest secrets, or waxing philosophical about being liked for who you are and not who you hang out with, Sleator offers an illuminating window into his unique and offbeat family, in which life was lived to the fullest.

After Jared accidentally plunges into a polluted swamp, he gains the ability to read minds . . . and discovers dangerous secrets about his family The first thing Jared does every summer when he and his family arrive at their cottage is hop on his bike and cruise along the back roads. Only this year he’s grown too big for the bike. When the brakes suddenly give out at the bottom of the hill where the road makes a sharp turn, Jared plunges into an industrial swamp oozing with toxic waste. After the accident, Jared feels OK—except for a headache. But then he starts hearing strange things: people’s private thoughts, which are the total opposite of what they actually say. Next, Jared’s journal is stolen. Luckily, he can just read the mind of the person who stole it. He can also use his new power to track down the culprit in a recent series of ATM robberies and neighborhood break-ins. But along with solving mysteries, Jared uncovers shocking family secrets, the identity of someone else who has the same paranormal gift as him, and the truth about the girl he loves.

Leo and Tim are abducted by aliens—and find themselves in the middle of an intergalactic feud Leo is driving his best friend, Tim, to the station to catch the midnight train to New York City, where Tim hopes to sell his science fiction drawings to a publisher. But they never get there. While on the road, Leo and Tim see a strange circle of lights in the sky, and before they know it, creepy, tiny-headed creatures are taking samples of the boys’ blood on some sort of spaceship. Suddenly, Leo is back in his car and Tim—along with Leo’s memory—is gone. Worse, when Leo finally starts to remember what happened, no one believes him. Before long, the 2 friends find themselves in the middle of a cosmic contest between warring alien races—and the people of Earth are caught in the crossfire. Time is running out, and it’s up to Leo and Tim to save the planet from catastrophe.

Eighteen-year-old Sam has always been jealous of his younger brother, Humphrey, the famous "wonder child" pianist. But now that Humphrey is fifteen, the one-time child prodigy isn''t able to get any more bookings. Sam''s mother refuses to accept that Humphrey''s career is over and devises a scheme to recapture his fame: Sam will compose "new works" by a long dead gypsy composer, and they will tell the world that the composer is dictating the music to Humphrey from the grave. The scheme is a wild success—until some ghostly occurrences convince Sam that the spirit of the dead composer has actually taken over Humphrey''s fingers. Have Sam and his family unleashed a force from beyond the grave? At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Sixteen-year-old twins Harry and Barry stumble across a gateway to another universe, where a distortion in time and space causes a dramatic change in their competitive relationship.

A foreign exchange student comes to live with Julie’s family for a year—setting off a frightening chain of events Julie isn’t thrilled about her parents’ decision to sponsor a foreign exchange student from Thailand. Not only is the stranger going to live with them for a year, but Julie is convinced he’ll be a nerd and will embarrass her at school. But when a tall, handsome, super-cool guy named Bia arrives, Julie is suddenly the envy of all her girlfriends. Dominic, Julie’s 11-year-old brother, is also thrilled to have Bia around the house. So to make the guest feel at home in America, Dominic builds a traditional Thai spirit house in the backyard. Overnight, Bia seems to undergo a major personality change. He’s mean and spiteful and lies about everything. He also seems terrified of something . . . or someone. Has Dominic’s construction somehow invoked a vengeful spirit? Is Bia the bearer of luck so bad it could harm Julie and her family?

When David finds a mysterious machine that can copy living things, he thinks his problems are over. Now he can be in two places at once: at his grandmother''s and out on a date. While the other David is in school, the real one can spend the day at the beach. The possibilities are endless. And they turn terrifying. David''s duplicate has a mind, ideas, and desires of his own--and one of them is to see the real David dead.

When two youngsters realize they are having the same frightening dream, they begin searching for an explanation for this mysterious coincidence.

Annie''s Uncle Marco goes on one of his mysterious trips, leaving her in charge of two sealed boxes on one condition: she must not open either one while he is away. But she is tempted...and soon she has unleashed the unspeakable. The creatures inside the box are crab-like and grotesque. And they possess a power Annie could never have imagined: the power to transmute time."Sleator is the master of the creepy-crawly, and his inventiveness is at full power here." --The Horn Book

This chilling, suspenseful indictment of mind control is a classic of science fiction and will haunt readers long after the last page is turned. One by one, five sixteen-year-old orphans are brought to a strange building. It is not a prison, not a hospital; it has no walls, no ceiling, no floor. Nothing but endless flights of stairs leading nowhere--except back to a strange red machine. The five must learn to love the machine and let it rule their lives. But will they let it kill their souls? "An intensely suspenseful page-turner." --School Library Journal "A riveting suspense novel with an anti-behaviorist message that works . . . because it emerges only slowly from the chilling events." --Kirkus Reviews

When Peter is hit by a car, he is given the ultimate do-over: go back to any point in time before that fateful moment, and alter the events leading up to his death. If he fails, he will die again--this time, for good. Now Peter''s racing against time to save his own life, but what should he change? His adoptive parents don''t understand him, the school jock is out to get him, and no one appreciates his own talents. This may be his last chance--can Peter cheat death, or will he be lost forever?

Isaac is the new kid in town. His mother, Vera, is in the hospital with a mysterious illness, and the only person left to care for Isaac is his distant grandfather. Friendless and often alone, Isaac loses himself in his collection of optical illusions, including a strange mirror box that he finds in his new house, left behind by the previous tenants. Designed for amputees, it creates the illusion of a second limb. Lonely Isaac wishes someone would reach out to him, and then someone does—a phantom limb within the mirror box! It signs to Isaac about a growing danger: someone who has murdered before and is out to get Vera next. The only way Isaac can solve the mystery and save his mother is with the help of the mirror box. But can he trust the phantom limb?

When Laura discovers that the unpopular boy living next door to her has the ability to go into the fourth dimension, she makes the dangerous decision to accompany him on his journeys there.

Danny can feel something sinister about his new home, Blackbriar, an old, abandoned cottage in the English countryside. the residents of a nearby town refuse to speak of the house and can barely look Danny in the eyes. Then Danny begins to have strange dreams of fires and witches, and awakes to shrieks of laughter that seem to come from another time and place. with help from his friend, Lark, Danny begins to unravel the mysteries of Blackbriar and its frightening past, through the discovery of an ancient doll and a chilling list of names and dates carved on the cellar door. But what might be most terrifying of all is the mystery that does not lie in the past but in the here and now. . . .

Now in paperback! Pass, and have it made. Fail, and suffer the consequences. A master of teen thrillers tests readers’ courage in an edge-of-your-seat novel that echoes the fears of exam-takers everywhere. Ann, a teenage girl living in the security-obsessed, elitist United States of the very near future, is threatened on her way home from school by a mysterious man on a black motorcycle. Soon she and a new friend are caught up in a vast conspiracy of greed involving the mega-wealthy owner of a school testing company. Students who pass his test have it made; those who don’t, disappear . . . or worse. Will Ann be next? For all those who suspect standardized tests are an evil conspiracy, here’s a thriller that really satisfies! Praise for Test “Fast-paced with short chapters that end in cliff-hangers . . . good read for moderately reluctant readers. Teens will be able to draw comparisons to contemporary society’s shift toward standardized testing and ecological concerns, and are sure to appreciate the spoofs on NCLB.†? —School Library Journal “Part mystery, part action thriller, part romance . . . environmental and political overtones . . . fast pace and unique blend of genres holds attraction for younger teen readers.†? —Booklist

Three teen-agers, thrown together by chance in an isolated house, become increasingly aware of a threat lurking in the darkness outside.

Doug and his sister are about to meet the Beasties, a family of beings with war on their minds--against the human race

When eleven-year-old Tycho discovers that the mysterious egg-shaped object he dug up in his garden is a time travel device, he can''t resist using his newfound power. Soon he is jumping back and forth in time, mostly to play tricks on his bossy older brothers and sister. But every time he uses the device, he notices that things are different when he gets back—and the futures he visits are getting darker and scarier. Then Tycho comes face-to-face with the most terrible thing of all: his grown-up self. Can Tycho prevent the terrible future he sees from coming true? At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Barney''s boring seaside vacation suddenly becomes more interesting when the cottage next door is occupied by three exotic neighbors who are addicted to a game they call "Interstellar Pig."

Three teen-agers, thrown together by chance in an isolated house, become increasingly aware of a threat lurking in the darkness outside.

A Caldecott Honor recipient, science fiction author William Sleator presents "a fast-paced, chilling fantasy" (Booklist) of one girl''s unexpected adventure beyond her imagaination. A dark awakening... When her parents give her a gloomy old dollhouse for her birthday instead of the ten speed bike she''s expecting, Vicky is disappointed. But she soon becomes fascinated by the small shadowy world and its inhabitants. The hours she spends playing with the dolls is a good way to escape from her parents''s arguments. As Vicky''s life becomes more troubled, she starts to take out her frustration on the dolls, making their lives as unhappy as hers. Then one day, Vicky wakes up inside the dollhouse, trapped among the monsters she''s created. Bewildered, Vicky is sure she''s dreaming. Can she find her way out of this nightmare world? At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Sixteen-year-old Ken loses his best friend in a plane crash and now he wants to be invulnerable. He finds a psychic who claims she can make him immortal for $50--if he gives up his soul. Ken agrees, but soon realizes that the psychic may be exacting a more sinister payment.

Max finds himself in possession of a time travel device which is eagerly sought by two desperate men, the scientist who invented it and the scientist''s alter ego from a different timeline.

Seventeen-year-old Nick buys a used cell phone only to call his girlfriend, but strange and desperate people keep calling--one of them a denizen of Hell--begging for or demanding his help.

Three years of bad luck have passed since Dom''s sister lost a valuable jade necklace on her way to Thailand. When his family travels there, he is determined to recover the necklace and appease the vengeful spirit. When Dom meets Lek, an English-speaking Thai his age, he thinks he''s got the solution. But Lek has something with supernatural owers, too -- powers that can be deadly."Riveting. Vintage Sleator."-- The Horn Book William Sleator is the author of many enormously popular science fiction and suspense thrillers for young adults, including The Spirit House , the prequel to this novel.

Barney''s stuck at a boring after-school job, earning money to repay his parents after their beach house is destroyed in a battle with aliens. Of course, they don''t believe that aliens did the damage. No one, in fact, realizes that sixteen-year-old Barney saved the world by outsmarting the visitors at their violent game, saved the world by outsmarting the visitors at their violent game, Interstellar Pig. No one but the aliens-and for them the game is far from over. Barney is about to become the unwilling partner of a chatty intestinal parasite; the potential snack of giant, man-eating crabs; and the competitor of a stinger-happy seven-foot wasp woman. Life just got a lot more interesting...

Twelve-year-old Marco''s love for travel and for his younger sister Lilly, who has psychic powers, leads him to journey to other universes, gaining the ability to go wherever he wishes without growing old.

When her desperately ill older brother insists that she take him into their mysterious backyard garden, designed by their quantum physicist great uncle, fourteen-year-old Susan discovers that things are not always what they seem.

Five sixteen-year-old orphans of widely varying personality characteristics are involuntarily placed in a house of endless stairs as subjects for a psychological experiment on conditioned human response.

Suivre Barry, son frère jumeau, Harry en a l''habitude. Cette fois encore, lorsque Barry décide de jouer les gardiens dans une vieille bâtisse isolée, Harry l''accompagne sans trop rechigner. Mais la maison, héritée d''un oncle original, leur réserve d''inquiétantes surprises. Il s''est produit d''étranges choses dans la pinède voisine : des disparitions de bétail et d''autres phénomènes louches. Bientôt l''aventure tourne à la lutte sourde, non plus seulement entre les deux frères, mais contre des forces inexpliquées...