The Night the Heads Came

Leo is driving his friend Tim to the bus station so the latter can sneak off to New York to show his drawings to a publisher, and neither teen is prepared for what happens next. They get abducted by aliens and taken aboard a spacecraft, where samples of their bodily fluids are drawn by disgusting tiny-headed creatures at the behest of even more disgusting huge-headed creatures. The aliens decide to keep Tim, whose drawings they admire, and hapless Leo gets dumped back in the car, with no memory of what happened. Ensuing events, down to the ironic ending, are straight out of the sci-fi cliche vault; savvy readers will recognize elements from The Outer Limits TV series, The Stepford Wives and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, as well as environmentalist tracts. This is not one of Sleator's (Others See Us) more inspired efforts, but for those whose idea of mind candy includes plenty of slimy creepy-crawlies, it may be just the ticket. Ages 10-up. (Mar.)