Wacky Characters Make Book Fun To Read

“Oddballs,” by William Sleator, is the funniest book I’ve read so far in 1996. It tells the stories (all true, Sleator insists) of his own family.

Where to start? Well, each chapter is a short story in itself that introduces the wacky members of this family. When you’re finished, you get an overall profile of Sleator’s family.

There’s Dad, a silent observer in the middle of some hilarious hi-jinks. One such occurrence is when Vicky, his daughter, is falsely accused of a crime and is represented by a lawyer who is convinced she’s guilty.

Mom loves her children’s list of all the things parents do wrong (expecting rooms to be clean, telling embarrassing personal stories about the children when the children are present, breathing, etc.) and makes it into a play for all the adults to see.

Bill (supposedly William Sleator as a kid) is the oldest child who invites over a friend with an over-protective mother and eventually never sees the friend again. You’ll see why.

Vicky, at a young age, dyes herself and her friends purple with grape juice and emerges as yet another hilarious character. When Dad asks her if she’d like him to show her a dead body some time, she cries, “More than anything else in the whole world!”

But don’t forget Danny and Tycho Barney George Clement Newby Sleator (the youngest, whom the family couldn’t choose a name for, so they named him everything). Danny and Tycho’s finest hour comes when Tycho is hypnotized.

The Royal Family has nothing on these wackos. And if you ever wondered about the sanity of your own family, the Sleators will make you feel better about that, too.