Looks can be Deceiving

I mean really-does that look appealing? 

How many times have we all heard, "don't judge a book by its cover."  Well it shames me to admit it, but I often judge books by their cover.  William Sleator's The Boy who Reversed Himself has, in my opinion, a particularly terrible cover.  It is on this year's Reading Olympic's list so I was going to read it anyway but one glance at the cover made me think, "ugh, this is going to be silly and terrible."

I'm happy to report that I was wrong.  Despite the kiddy cover The Boy who Reversed Himself was actually a really deep read.  Everyone knows that we are three dimensional beings.  But what if there was a fourth dimension?  And what if we could get there? What if her weird neighbor Omar is more than just a weird kid?

When Omar gives Laura her science report-but with all the writing reversed she knows something is up. And she stops at nothing to find out what it is.  I don't want to give any spoilers but lets just say the cover isn't the only thing that's deceiving.

This book is a great introduction to science fiction.  It's complicated enough that it forces you to really think, but it isn't so complicated that younger students can't understand.  This is a great stepping stone to a book like A Wrinkle in Time.

Looking beyond the surface...that's kids stuff.