Seek - Softcover

Fleischman, Paul

3.62

271 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0689854021 ISBN 13: 9780689854026

Publisher: S&S Books for Young Readers, 2003

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Assigned to write his autobiography, high school senior Rob Radkovitz decides to "listen" back on his life. As he remembers the voices of his younger self, his quirky family, and his closest friends, one stands apart - the haunting voice of his long-absent father, left behind on a single tape from one of his radio shows. Told in a collage of past and present voices, Seek follows Rob's obsessive search for his father, pursued not through San Francisco's streets, but through the labyrinth of the airwaves. Open the cover and listen in - to psychic readers and pirate D.J.s, and to Rob's transforming views of his past and future.

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Review:

Late night. The boy listens to the radio and twirls the dial aimlessly to catch fragments of a talk show, a baseball game, jazz, rock, country & western, a Spanish soap opera, the curtain calls for a grand opera, a sermon, a newscast...

This is the raw material for the sound collage Paul Fleischman has put together to make an extraordinary novel that tells of a young boy's ongoing search through the airwaves for the DJ father he never knew. Added to the radio sound bites are other voices: love and wisdom from the boy's grandparents and mother, banter with his friends, hilarious bits from their alternative newspaper, scenes from his childhood--and his own voice reading from a school-assignment autobiography. Characteristically, the boy's father has left him only sound: a sound-effects record and a taping of his Golden Oldies call-in show. These become the recurring chorus for this cacophony that somehow takes on the shape of an engaging narrative, as the boy seeks and seeks, and finally outgrows his need and finds his own direction.

Paul Fleischman is the distinguished winner of a Newbery Medal (Joyful Noise), a Newbery Honor (Graven Images), two Golden Kites, and the Scott O'Dell Award (Bull Run). His interest in sound for its own sake has often taken him in new directions, none more audacious than this: a book which is entirely aural in a visual age, meant to be experienced through the mind's ear (instructions for performance are included) rather than the mind's eye. (Ages 12 and older) --Patty Campbell

From the Inside Flap:

ll cast
approx. 3 hours
2 cassettes

Assigned to write an autobiography, high-school senior Robert Radkovitz instead creates a sound portrait of his life as he remembers it. Looking back, he hears his mother's singing, his grandmother's mysteries, Mexican soap operas, Poe, poetry, and, most cherished, the voice of his absent father from a single tape of one of his radio shows.
Told in a collage of voices, Seek describes Rob's search for his father, a search pursued not through San Francisco's streets, but through the labyrinth of the airwaves. Psychic readers, baseball announcers, pirate DJs, friends, and teachers join a rich, ringing aural autobiography that's as joyfully comic as it is compelling.

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