Customer Reviews

Test

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William Sleator has come up with another winner. The climate in schools these days is fraught with tension about testing. Even wee kindergartners are now dragged into it. It's out of control and TEST, a semi-futuristic teen thriller, neatly incorporates the fears and concerns about standardized testing into a story of the high school caste system carried to a logical and chilling elitist extreme. The book is vibrant and fun to read, the characters are real and compelling, and the outcome is satisfying.

William Sleator has long been regarded as one of the leading writers of science fiction for young people. With TEST, his latest in a long string of thought-provoking novels, Sleator also proves himself adept at social commentary and biting satire, as he takes on all kinds of current social phenomena, particularly the No Child Left Behind policies that now define success in public education for students, teachers and school administrators alike.

In TEST, Sleator imagines a world not too very different from our own, but all the more frightening for that. Kids in public schools spend virtually all their time studying for the test (the XCAS) that will determine their ability to graduate from high school and, to a very real extent, the shape of the rest of their lives. People who pass the XCAS get to go to college and find real jobs and comfortable livings outside of the over-crowded cities. Those who fail, however, are doomed to dead-end jobs, substandard subsidized housing projects, and a life spent sitting in traffic. The oil companies and auto executives have engineered the system to keep these people in their cars (and gas profits in their own pockets) six or more hours every day.

One of those kids stuck studying for the XCAS is Ann Forrest, a high school senior who is having trouble with the English portion of the test. She has never read a book for class or had a meaningful discussion about literature. Instead, her English class is nothing more than a series of drills, reading paragraphs and answering sample test questions.

But soon, Ann's XCAS score is the least of her problems. Her father, a home health worker in one of the city's largest housing complexes, has been getting in trouble by encouraging residents to protest their unsafe housing conditions. The manager of the complex, which is owned by Mr. Warren --- who also owns XCAS's publishing company --- has targeted Ann as a way to get back at her father. But before long, Ann and her new ally, an immigrant boy named Lep, are causing Mr. Warren a lot of problems on their own, threatening to uncover a conspiracy that just might bring down Mr. Warren --- and the XCAS --- once and for all.

Kids who are fed up with their own standardized testing experiences will find much to ponder in TEST, particularly when Sleator contrasts this new style of "teaching to the test" with older methods of reading and discussing literary works. Readers will also enjoy seeing how Ann and Lep solve problems, taking action against a system designed to keep people poor and uneducated. In fact, some may wish that the novel's satire could have been pushed farther, instead of having a plot that, at times, gets mired in unlikely coincidences and near-preposterous revenge schemes. The strongest element of the book is its premise, whose slightly skewed futuristic rendering of current events makes readers think twice about present-day directions and future possibilities.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

Others See Us by William Sleator was the first scifi book I read, and ever since I've been addicted to not only his work but to scifi books in general. I was a little dissapointed in this book though. It does have futuristic aspects to it, but thats about as far as it goes in the scifi department. Overall its a good book, I was just expecting a little more.

Ickickick!!!! I wanted to give it two stars, and I don't know why, because I can't think of a single redeeming thing in the book. I only read it all the way thorugh because a) My sister was reading the other book I was planning on reading and b) I hoped it would improve. Now I wish I just stole the book from my sister instead of tolerate this waste of time.

Also this book probably includes spoilers, but it's so dull, that it's not like the spoilers are going to ruin an otherwise gripping story. Because it is anything but gripping.

Let's start off with the writing. The writing in this book is very clumsy and poor. I don't know how to explain this very well. We can start with the fact that he often doesn't introduce the characters' names very well. Also, the author either a) doesn't know how to or b) doesn't want to put the effort into showing us what the people are feeling. Constantly he tells what the characters are thinking. He tries to encourage our fear for the characters through questions, but he overuses this tactic so much that it just falls flat on me. Moreover, the questions he asks are dumb.

Lastly, he works so hard to show us either how poor the characters are or how rich the characters. He does this through ways such as saying that, "Well, of course she had her own marble bathroom."

The chapters make no sense. This book could probably be half of the lenght if he only kept in the important sections. He includes a section about Mr. Warren's daughter, Elisa, but I'm struggling to figure out what the point was with even mentioning her, since she does practically nothing, and I really don't care that only her nose is fixed in the end.

Which brings me to another topic: Characters. The characters have the strangest emotions and behave in some of the strangest ways. The person who keeps threatening Ann seems dangerous and so hate filled. However, he suddenly and unexplainably changes his attitude towards them and ends up brining down the test writers.

Motivations are not even able to be understood. The characters do things just because they can.

About the setting, he claims that it is near future United States. However, in the first chapter it is said that since the new government took over, the traffic has been improved. We don't, however, get to near anything more about this new government.

Which brings me to plot holes. The plot holes that he manages to fit into this little book are sick. I mean real bad. A common thing that characters complain about is the traffic. It is faster for Ann to walk to school, even though it takes an hour, than to drive, because it takes that much longer. Traffic is just stand still. If that is the case, then why don't more people just walk? Moreover, motorcycles are allowed to zip between any cars they please. So why don't more people drive motorcycles?

Another plot hole. The dad has the job he does because it is the best he pay he can get since he didn't pass the XCAS. However, the XCAS was introduced with the new government, which her dad would not have been around for.

Or are we really suppose to think that fifty dollars and some vodka is enough to bribe a helicopter pilot into silence about where they are going?

That's about all the plot holes I'm going to discuss now.

He doesn't seem to do his research. An investigative reporter wrote an article in one day, with no investigation. I mean, seriously, if you are given a story about the big test's cooruption, you'd think you'd at least do three days of research into it. And Elisa is bulimic, but is she smart enough to use a laxative that won't be as noticeable, or does she force herself to vomit and ruin her teeth? And how, if she is so obsessed over her appearance, does she get by with the ruined teeth her bulimia would.

The last complaint I have is this book is so incredibly preachy! Let me think about what he wanted to say in this book. (I think.)
a) Poor people are just poor because they didn't do well in school
b) If you don't do well in school, you'll end up in a poor apartment.
c) Rich people are self absorbed jerks who don't care about a single person who is under them.
d) Standardized tests are stupid.
e) No child left behind is stupid and no one likes them.
f) Money can buy you anything.
g) Just because you're from a foriegn country and don't know English very well doesn't mean you're stupid.

All of these messages are communicated in his direct, obvious writing so you can't ever miss the message.

In short, started it for thirty minutes on Monday, didn't read it all week, then finished it in a couple hours over a Sunday afternoon, only because I hoped that the story would improve. It didn't. So don't waste your time or money.

William Sleator has been thrilling and terrifying readers for decades now with the fantastic, unbelievable, and at times scarily close to a possible doomed future, as he does with his latest book, Test. In this world, the United States is a little different to what you or I know. There are now an untold number of cars on the roads and highways of the country, clogging the asphalt and air with exhaust fumes; it takes many hours to get just a few miles, as traffic inches along at a pathetic pace. If you need to be at work or school by 9AM, you need to leave in the early hours of the morning. And how does one avoid this? Well, you have to be super rich so you can afford your own helicopter, your own helipad on top of your mansion, and a helipad where you go to school or work; then you can get to class in no time, just like one of the characters in Test.

And how does one become super rich? Well, it really depends on how you do on the XCAS test. This is the national test that every high school student must take to graduate and to determine if they have any hope of a future and a job and a decent career. If they fail, there is little hope for them. And what do teachers teach them? Not English vocabulary and grammar, not mathematics and science, or languages, but practice and training for passing the XCAS test; because if the students don't past the tests, then the school gets low ratings, and they get less government funding for the school. It's a very vicious cycle in this elitist America.

Ann is sick of the system, but as a member of a family that struggles to get by, she doesn't really have much choice. But she is a very smart teenager, and as she learns some facts and details about certain people, she puts the pieces together and begins to have some hope that she might just be able to do something about the state of things, but she's going to need some help.

Sleator does it again, with Test, creating a unique world with strong and interesting characters and a compelling story that will have readers - be they young adults or adults - hooked to the very end. So the next time you prepare for a midterm and you really don't feel like studying for it, take a read of Test, and find out how much worse things could be.

Originally written on September 16 2010 ©Alex C. Telander.

Anyone who's ever sweated over a standardized test is bound to be able to relate with much of the emotions the characters in 'Test' feel. The book also brings up other problems related to these tests besides the constant anxiety: the profit motive, the way they eliminate creative learning and discussion by forcing teachers to 'teach to the test', the way the tests only 'rate' one style of learner/ test taker etc.- and this is all true. However, the author seems to ignore some basic facts, like, the people who originally created standardized tests were not motivated by evil desires to see everyone that couldn't pass crushed beneath the heel of society. True, that could (as seen in this book) be a result,but standardized tests- any tests really- were originally created to help. Presenting the tests- and their shadowy, distant creators- as completely evil struck me as flat. Maybe by the time of this novel that's what it evolved to, but couldn't there be some acknowledgment of the good these tests were *supposed* to accomplish? 'The road to hell is paved with good intentions'...but it would of been nice to see more of the road.
That said, this is an incredible book, so enjoy!

In a world not much different than ours, people are divided into two classes. In one, the rich and powerful travel by helicopter to their luxury houses and jobs. In the other, people are stuck in hours of traffic going to and from their low-level jobs - all the while breathing air poisoned by pollution.

The Test is what determines your future.

Ann lives with her parents in the low-level class. Her parents leave hours before they have to be at work because it takes so long to get there in the traffic. Her father works as a health care giver to some people that live in an apartment building owned by one of the most powerful men in the country.

The apartment building is in terrible shape and in constant disrepair. When Ann's father starts to tell the occupants to withhold rent until their apartments are fixed, things begin to get dangerous.

Ann starts to see a mysterious man on a motorcycle bearing a weird logo on her way to and from school. When he begins to threaten her, she decides to figure out what is going on. She finds out things are more connected than she ever thought, and that the Test is at the center of everything.

THE TEST by William Sleator is a good story. With how testing is viewed in our public schools today, it is interesting to see an author's view of what could happen if we let testing get out of control.

The one weakness I can see with this book is the ending. It almost seemed like Sleator ran out of time and had to turn in the manuscript before he could wrap things up properly. Overall, though, a good read.

Reviewed by: Karin Librarian