Oddballs

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...