The Mind Trap by G. Clifton Wisler

The Mind Trap Reviews

• 
  Luke

  I read this book when I was in the 5th grade or so and I loved it. I remember checking it out from the library several times and my name was the only one on the card to have checked the book out. Nonetheless, I thought it was great and the other kids were missing out. I'm going to try to find it again and I hope I enjoy it as much now as I did back then.
• 
  Swankivy

  Mr. Wisler was primarily a western author, but he tried his hand at kids' science fiction once, and I appreciated his effort in these books. They were about a normal kid named Scott finding out he was not of this world, and after several strange occurrences were attributed to his alien abilities, he had to leave his family and go with his companion Tiaf, to move from town to town trying to make a difference. In this book, he somehow ends up in a facility run by scientists who want to study and make use of his alien abilities, and there are other kids there who have unusual powers too. The idea behind it sounds rather silly, because so many books take this angle on kids with superpowers trying to escape the selfish and exploitative efforts of adults doing it "for science," but I was able to form a connection with Scott's character and cared about him connecting with other kids who were similar to him.
• 
  Julie Decker

  Scott is a young Antrean boy--that is, an alien--and after a series of triumphs and tragedies (in two previous books), he finds himself in a facility with other children who, like him, have unusual abilities. Scientists want to understand, harness, and use the kids' powers for their own purposes, but Scott is determined to escape.
  
  The plot idea is pretty generic--I thought that might have something to do with the fact that the author doesn't write much science fiction and this was apparently a foray into something he doesn't have much contact with--but the realness of the characters is well executed (or at least it seemed as much to me when I read it in ninth grade). I had already formed an investment in Scott as a character in the previous books and enjoyed seeing him form relationships with other people who'd felt like outsiders for similar reasons to his, and that made up for the "scientists tap super-powered children for their own nefarious purposes" plot line.