The Phantom Limb

by William Sleator, Ann Monticone

Overview

Isaac is the new kid in town. His mother, Vera, is in the hospital with a mysterious illness, and the only person left to care for Isaac is his distant grandfather. Friendless and often alone, Isaac loses himself in his collection of optical illusions, including a strange mirror box that he finds in his new house, left behind by the previous tenants. Designed for amputees, it creates the illusion of a second limb. Lonely Isaac wishes someone would reach out to him, and then someone does—a phantom limb within the mirror box! It signs to Isaac about a growing danger: someone who has murdered before and is out to get Vera next. The only way Isaac can solve the mystery and save his mother is with the help of the mirror box. But can he trust the phantom limb?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781613122136
Publisher:	ABRAMS, Inc.
Publication date:	05/23/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	228
Lexile:	660L (what's this?)
File size:	4 MB
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

William Sleator has thrilled readers for many years with his inventive books that blend real science with stories that explore our darkest fears and wishes. Critics call his writing “clever and engrossing” (Booklist) and “gleefully icky” (Publishers Weekly). He divides his time between homes in Boston and Thailand.
William Sleator (1945–2011) was an American science fiction author best known for his young adult novels. Raised outside of St. Louis, Missouri, Sleator was the eldest of four children. After graduating from Harvard University with a degree in English, he moved to England for a short time, where he played music for ballet classes and developed the ideas for Blackbriar, his first novel. For many years, he was the rehearsal pianist for the Boston Ballet.

Sleator is the author of over thirty books, including The Angry Moon, which was awarded the Caldecott Medal and nominated for the National Book Award, as well as the quasi-autobiographical science fiction thrillers: The Night the Heads Came, Others See Us, and Oddballs. In his later years, he split his time between Boston and rural Thailand.

Editorial Reviews

As this thriller begins, Isaac, newly arrived in town, is totally miserable: “A mental darkness surrounded Isaac. He was fourteen, and he had no friends.” His father has recently died; his pianist mother is in the hospital, leaving him in charge of his grandfather, who has Alzheimer’s disease; and the malicious Fitzpatrick twins are making his life hell at school. His only fun comes from the sophisticated optical illusions that he collects. Then odd things start to happen: the hospital staff starts acting strangely as his mother gets sicker. Isaac finds a “mirror box,” a therapeutic optical illusion designed to give amputees the appearance of still having two hands, and while he’s playing with it, someone else’s hand appears in the mirror. Soon Isaac uncovers evidence that his mother is being slowly murdered and that other pianists have also died under mysterious circumstances. Unfortunately, this collaboration is not one of the late Sleator’s better works. The characters are broadly drawn, and the hospital plot isn’t particularly believable, although there’s plenty of action and a genuinely sicko villain. Ages 14–up. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Gr 6–8—Isaac, new in town and friendless, is having a really bad time. His mother is in the hospital and his grandfather has started to forget things. When the 14-year-old finds a strange mirror box in the attic, he does a little research and discovers that it was once used to negate phantom pain in someone with an amputated limb. He discovers that Joey, the child who lived in the house before him, first lost a limb and then his life. Now Joey is using the mirror box to communicate with Isaac to potentially save his mother from the same psychotic killer. It's up to Isaac and some newly found friends to rescue her from the hospital where she just keeps getting worse and worse. The premise for this thriller is promising, but the execution is not quite spot-on. Some plot points are a little confusing, and many kids will find the story predictable. Isaac's character is believable and endearing, but other characters can be one-dimensional.—Jessica Miller, New Britain Public Library, CT

School Library Journal