# Identify YA author please? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 3, 2003, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-ya-author-please/185997 "2003-07-03T12:15:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Iteki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2003, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-ya-author-please/185997/1 "2003-07-03T12:15:27Z")
Having vague flashbacks to some books I read in my youth. One is where a group of youths are captured and placed in an environment of white staircases, they get food from dispensers according to some sort of pattern. The food is pellets I believe. I have a strong reccollection of there being a toilet in the center of a narrow beam between two sets of stairs. The other is, I think, by the same author, and involves somone getting into the fourth dimension and being captured by the beings who live there. One of them is mean but its “partner” is kind I think. There was something about a lantern… Anyone got any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2003, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-ya-author-please/185997/2 "2003-07-03T12:33:32Z")
What’s the latest the book could have been published? ---
**Author:** ![Iteki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2003, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-ya-author-please/185997/3 "2003-07-03T12:37:11Z")
Very latest? I would say maybe 92? ---
**Author:** ![Trion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Trion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trion)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2003, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-ya-author-please/185997/4 "2003-07-03T12:39:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Iteki \* > \*\*Having vague flashbacks to some books I read in my youth. > > One is where a group of youths are captured and placed in an environment of white staircases, they get food from dispensers according to some sort of pattern. The food is pellets I believe. I have a strong reccollection of there being a toilet in the center of a narrow beam between two sets of stairs. > > \*\* I read this one when I was a Young Adult. I’m pretty sure it’s “House of Stairs” by William Sleator. [Here is an Amazon link to the book.](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0140345809/qid=1057236052/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-1583830-5408165?v=glance&s=books) I’m nat familiar with the other one, but if it is by the same author, my guess would be “The Boy Who Reversed Himself”. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2003, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-ya-author-please/185997/5 "2003-07-03T12:44:54Z")
> [@](#): > > I’m pretty sure it’s “House of Stairs” by William Sleator. Yeah, that sounds right to me, too. > [@](#): > > _from Novelist_ > Five fifteen-year-old orphans of widely varying personality characteristics are involuntarily placed in a house of endless stairs as subjects for a psychological experiment on conditioned human response. ---
**Author:** ![Iteki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2003, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-ya-author-please/185997/6 "2003-07-03T13:33:03Z")
They are both right 🙂 I recognise the title on the second one! Thank you 🙂