In the Middle of the Night by Robert Cormier
Reading level: Young Adult

The sin of the father will be visited upon the son.

On Halloween, eight years before Denny Colbert was born, his father was involved in a tragic accident that killed twenty-two children. And one of those children can't forget.

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Sixteen-year-old Denny just wants to be like other kids his age. But he isn't allowed to have a driver's license or answer the telephone, and his family moves so often that he's always the new kid in school. Then there are the phone calls-they start every October, a week or two before the anniversary. Every year, the ringing of the telephone wakes Denny up in the middle of the night. And every year, his father calmly answers the calls, listening to the angry voice on the other end for several minutes before hanging up. But this Halloween is different -- it's been twenty-five years since the accident. Denny and his mother dread the inevitable phone calls, letters. and newspaper articles. But Denny's father is determined that they are not going to disconnect the phone and they are not going to move again.

When Denny defies his parents one afternoon and answers the telephone, he finds himself drawn into a provocative, and potentially deadly, relationship with the mystery caller -- someone called Lulu -- who haunts his days and nights and may haunt yours.

In this chillingly suspenseful novel, Robert Cormier examines the consequences of a young man's rebellion against his father's past.

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