Customer Reviews

The Boy Who Reversed Himself

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I was in elementary school, I remember the first time I laid my eyes on a William Sleator book. It was 'The Boy Who Reversed Himself'. The cover was a great image of a boy's face being distorted by a prism or mirrors. The cover was mysterious, intriguing and it looked like an adult's book, not a children's book. It drew me in from the 1st glance. From that point on, I devoured every William Sleator book I could get my hands on, Singularity, Interstellar Pig, Tycho, House of Stairs, The Duplicate, and I loved them all. They were my introduction to the glory of Science Fiction.

So, my question is, Why the need for these ridiculous new covers? They look like something written for a kindergartener. Do these covers actually appeal to kids nowadays? I remember seeing books with covers similar to these current ones when I was a kid & thinking they were for a child much younger than I. In turn, I never had any desire to read them. The same thing is happening to all the good books, I noticed it happened to Ender's Game as well. What is going on with the publishers? Are they trying to dumb down our children? I remember thinking I was sophisticated & sort of grownup for reading books that didn't have kiddie covers. Why do the covers have to change? They wouldn't look antiquated nowadays, they would actually look more modern than this crap.

Rant aside, read the book it's great. Singularity is probably my favorite Sleator book, though this one is close as it was my intro to him.

This was one of the first books I read when I discovered William Sleator back in high school, and it remains a favorite of mine. A young girl starts having bizarre encounters with the new boy next door. He seems to know more about her than he should, and begins showing up places he couldn't be, like inside her closed locker. Things get even more bizarre when Omar's facial features inexplicably flip over to a mirror image of himself.

With a little persuasion, Laura cracks the truth -- Omar has the ability to step into the fourth dimension, and now that she knows about it Laura won't rest until she makes the journey with him. The resultant story is a nice little fable about power and responsibility. Sleator crafts some very well-rounded characters in this novel, and neatly manages the rather difficult trick of guiding the readers through visualizing an extra dimension that the human mind can't comprehend. Ultimately, like Sleator's best work, the high concept is a stepping point to examine what sort of people he's writing about and what sort of world could develop if that concept were carried through to its logical conclusion. This is one of my favorite Sleator books, and an excellent book to bring to a young reader who wants to dabble in science fiction.

The Boy who Reversed Himself
William Slaetor, the author of this book, came to visit my school, thats when I deiced to read this captivating book.
This book is a very special boy named Omar, who is new to the town; he has a hard time at his new school where everyone despises him, because he is different, new, and withdrawn. Omars next-door neighbor, who is a girl named Laura, and she doesnt Omar very much, but her mom forced her to hang out with him during the summer, because he was alone and new. Laura has noticed that something is weird about Omar because sometimes his face is reversed, she did notice that his freckle has changed side on his face! Soon, Laura finds out about his secret, although she finds it out by playing nice to him, and using his vulnerability to get what she wants. What she finds out is scary, intriguing, and exciting. Omar tells her about a 4-d space world, and how he can go there. Laura tells him she will be his very good friend and always be there, but she is lying; all she wants is to go into 4-d space. Of course Omar is now contented because he thinks he has a friend who actually wants to be with him. Consequently, Omar takes her into 4-d space, and she experiences very weird events! After a couple of trips to 4-d space with Omar, Laura finds out how to get there on her own, and brings a guy that she likes. His name is Pete, and Laura wants to impress him. The consequence is that she is breaking a promise she had with Omar, that she would never tell anyone about the 4-d space world. When Laura and Pete go to 4-d space, something terrible happens. You will find out what if you read the book!
This book is very surprising, and you never know whats going to happen next. In the beginning of the book I felt so repentant for Omar, because people very mean to him and the way Laura used him was malicious. In the middle, I got kind of tired of all the 4-d space talk, but as Pete and Laura went out there alone, it got more exciting. You wont know what to expect to happen next, it was a satisfactory part of the book. What I liked more was how everything came together at the end and everything that you read in the beginning of the book that didnt make sense had made sense at the end. I enjoyed the end the most, and the book forces you to think about everything in the universe. I liked reading this book slightly, even though it wasnt really my type of book.

The book The Boy Who Reversed Himself is good book about a girl who gets trapped in a different dimension. I thought it was good, but it's better for a higher reading level. I had a little trouble understanding when they were in the other dimension. The book was interesting aside the parts I didn't understand.
This book is good for kids who like to read science fiction books and also for readers who are good at understanding setting changes. This is a very interesting book that will be hard to put down. I would give this book a 7 out of 10.

William Sleator does an incredible job with this book. I first read it when I was in junior high and now, more than a decade later, I still enjoy this book. It starts with Laura finding a note in her locker that is written backwards. At first she thinks it is a joke, but that starts to change as she befriends a boy who has just moved into her neighborhood. And then she discovers his secret-- the ability to travel into the 4th dimension!
After that the book just keeps getting better until the very last line! Sleator's imagination and writing is excellent. I highly recommend this book to all sci-fi fans, regardless of age-- you will not be dissappointed.
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This was one of the first science fiction books I ever read, back in elementary school. I loved it then and I still love it, even though it is a children's book. It has a bit of "A Wrinkle in Time" to it, though is less serious in tone. Adults who enjoyed "Flatland" will probably like this book's more humorous take on "higher dimensions".

Here's a summary:This girl named Laura finds a note in her locker in mirror writing, and is confused because she did'nt know who it was from.So one day she forgets her homework but she finds it in her locker, but in mirror writing.She is so depressed/angry she changes the locker number without knowing and it ends up locked in her locker and this boy named Omar gets it, but is confused because he seems to be reversed. To know the rest, you'll just have to read it!

The Boy Who Reversed Himself, by William Sleator is a science fiction novel about a boy named Omar who has the ability to enter different dimensions. Laura, the narrator, is Omar's neighbor and realizes something is different about his face. After pleading with Omar and pretending to want to be his friend, he admits that his face is reversed. He goes on to explain that he is able to visit different dimensions, and his face was reversed while he was in 4-space. Laura immediately starts to beg him to take her into 4-space, and Omar finally gives in. Laura slowly learns the ways of 4-space and it is when she reluctantly decides to take her crush in with her, that she begins the most dangerous adventure of her life.
I really liked this book because it is a cliffhanger and always keeps you reading. Because the story deals with another dimension that nobody has seen, it is really hard to imagine what is going on in the story. In 4-space there is new directions you can move called Ana and Kata, and everything you look at you see cross sections of it. You have to concentrate really hard to understand what the characters are doing and seeing. Overall I liked this book a lot becaus it really gave a new perspective on life.

I give this book four stars. I gave it four stars because it was a really good book. This book was interesting all the way throughout it. It was a very good adventure book. If you like adventure books, this will be a book for you. It tells about a kid who can go into the fourth demention whenever he pleases. The only thing that I didn't like about it was that it doesn't explaine the fourth demention very well. It is hard to understand what the fourt demention is. It is about a new kid who just moved into town and he has a very interesting secreat. He can go into the fourth demention. He brings his neighbor into the fourth demention and she eventually learns how to go in by herself. She brings her boyfriend in and they get stuck in it. I would recommend this book to 10 year olds to 16 year olds. I recommend it to that age group because this book has some things to understand and follow. I would recommend it to people who like adventure books.

Laura becomes suspicious of Omar when he becomes a little too helpful. He is able to know impossible things and get into locked spaces. Laura turns on the charm and omar cracks like a soft boiled egg. He is able to go into the fourth dimension which is adjacent to our dimension but not too easy to enter. He shows all to Laura unwisely, and Laura takes her boyfriend on a site seeing tour. She then realises omar never taught her to get home. Capture and torture inevitably ensues until some quick thinking by laura in the end. Good action, but you have to stretch your mind into the 4th dimension to appreciate the book fully. Be warned, you might never bend it back into the same shape again.