Disappearing Act [Unabridged] [Audio Cassette]

Sid Fleischman (Author), Galen Druke (Author), Full Cast Family (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 22, 2004 | Age Level: 8 and up

Disappearing Act is a multi-voiced recording featuring Galen Druke as narrator and the fabulous Full Cast Audio family of actors. A dozen talented actors join together to present this fast-paced, funny and suspenseful tale of two young people on the run. Reminiscent of classic radio drama, this intriguing audiobook is even better because it contains the full, unabridged text. This is the library cassette edition which comes packaged in a hard plastic case.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-8-Twleve-year-old Kevin and his older sister Holly are on the run from a mysterious stalker named Toad and, befitting their offbeat lifestyle, they wind up in Venice Beach, California. Holly gets a chance to practice her opera singing under the alias of Chickadee Gomez while Kevin reinvents himself as Pepe, the kid fortune teller. The siblings encounter many wacky characters in their new home, including a medical student who juggles watermelons, a mother who imitates the Statue of Liberty, and a movie extra landlady. Of course, Toad follows them to Venice in a thin plot to gain a map that their missing and presumably dead mother left behind. Although the mystery aspects of the plot are sketchy, the colorful characters and vivid sketches of life in Venice make this novel by Sid Fleischman (Greenwillow, 2003) worthwhile. Galen Druke and the Full Cast Audio staff do an excellent job of imbuing the wacky characters with life. Fans of Sid Fleischman as well as those new to his work will enjoy this novel's humor and great dialogue.
Katherine Devine, Westminster Academy #26, Elizabeth, NJ
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 4-6. Fleischman pere blends themes both comic and serious into this tale of orphans on the run. Shortly after their archeologist mother is lost in a cave-in, Kevin Kidd and his older sister, Holly, find their house burglarized and realize that they are being stalked by a mysterious man in a white suit. In an effort to escape both the stalker and their grief, they depart for California, fetching up among the street performers on Venice Beach. With operatic ambitions and a voice to match, Holly sings for their supper, while Kevin shills for a watermelon juggler working his way through med school, and tells fortunes with a borrowed crystal ball. Holly's dream comes true when she's offered the lead in a local production, but the stalker shows up on opening night, waving a gun and insisting that the sibs' mom had found a map to a fabled city of gold. The author draws his twisty, nail-biter to an untidy, but satisfying, resolution: there's no mom and no map, but the Kidds' future still manages to take on a rosier glow. It's vintage Fleischman. John Peters
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Audio Cassette: 144 pages
• Publisher: Full Cast Audio; Unabridged edition (January 22, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932076433
• ISBN-13: 978-1932076431
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 6.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

More About the Author

Since his autobiography, The Abracadabra Kid: A Writer's Life, was published in 1996, Sid Fleischman has been stealing the spotlight with his exuberant brand of nonfiction. Sir Charlie: Chaplin, the Funniest Man in the World is Fleischman's fourth true tale, following the widely acclaimed The Trouble Begins at 8: A Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West and the best-selling Escape! The Story of The Great Houdini.
Fleischman's books have been made into films, performed as plays, and translated into nineteen languages. The author was awarded the Newbery Medal for The Whipping Boy.
Sid Fleischman lives in Santa Monica, California.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars OK , but language was a little dated at times, July 8, 2003

By 

Roy A. Henninger - See all my reviews

This review is from: Disappearing Act (Hardcover)

This was an ok book, certainly not the most exciting I've ever read but the plot moved along with kids on the lam from an unknown stalker after their mother died. It did seem easier for them to make money than I think real-world-on-the-lam kids would find it.

However, the language seemed a little dated in parts. One person "cracked wise", which is not in current vernacular. At another point, the boy was worried about wearing short pants, as he felt he had outgrown them. I don't think present-day kids are concerned about wearing short pants, although kids from 1910 might have been. The book is not necessarily set in a particular time, but it seems contemporary except for occasional use of terms unlikely to be used by a contemporary kid.