Customer Reviews

Seek

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I received the book yesterday, read it in 3 hours, and have decided (unexpectedly) to try to have my class perform this as a play. It is simply wonderful. The characters are believable and endearing. The plot is hopeful, honest, and brilliantly executed. Without manipulating your feelings, you find yourself laughing, crying, and thinking about your own life. Paul Fleischman...I have now elevated you to my favorite author. Everyone else, please, please, please be sure to read this wonderful book. It will change you.

If you are looking for a book with a plot that takes you by the hand and leads you through the whole book without so much as a bump in the road, this book is not for you.But if you are looking for something different, look no farther. This book is written in a collage of voices ranging from radio broadcasts to mexican soap operas. At first this mubble jumble of voices is very iscouraging because it is almost impossible to figure out what is happening abd ultimately what the book is about. But after you get past the beginning and the plot becomes more clear, you can begin to piece together all the voices and fin their unique part in the bigger picture. This is a very good book that has everything.At some parts it might be very sad or serious, while at others it was extremely funny. Since I have as of yet told you nothing about the plot, I will describe the plot in one sentence.The book is about a boys search for his father. I will tell you no more because the rest of the plot is for you to figure out. And perhaps it is the fact that you have to figure out the plot yourself that makes this such a great book.

This book is really cool. It is about a boy who searches for his father. It's really different because it tells the story entirely through quotes of the boy, Rob, along with his family, friends, and some tv and radio shows. This book is really good and I'm recommending it to all of my friends!

Featuring a full cast providing an authentic "theater of the mind" listening experience, Paul Fleischman's Seek is a complete and unabridged, 2 hour and 42 minute audiobook performance on two cassettes. Robert Radkovitz is a highschool senior assigned to write his autobiography. But what Rob creates is a kind of "sound portrait" of his life as he remembers it, including his mother's singing, his grandmother's mysteries, Mexican soap operas, Edgar Allan Poe, poetry, and the voice of his absent father from a single tape from one of his old radio shows. Told in a collage of voices, Seek describes Rob's search for his father through a labyrinth of airwaves and along the way encountering psychic readers, baseball announcers, pirate DJ.s. Seek is a unique and enthusiastically recommended audiobook experience, and would make a welcome and popular addition to any school or community library audiobook collection.

In Seek, High School teenager Rob is assigned to write an autobiography based on his life so far. Rob reflects back on his life not with writing descriptions and dialog but with sounds bites. He remembers his grandmother telling him stories, his grandfather teaching him history, his mother watching Spanish soap operas with him, he and his friends creating a controversial and popular newspaper in school and most importantly his continuous love for the radio. He remembers listening the radio, searching the many channels in hope of one day hearing his father's voice come over for once, the father who abandoned him and his mother before birth because he didn't want a child. Seek is a really great book. This novel/play is a familiar story but told in an unfamiliar way, instead of descriptions it's told through simple sound bites. If you're in the mood for an honest, touching, and often humorous story about a boy's search for his father and growing up in the world this is defiantly for you. It's a rarity you see a YA book with such heart.

The idea of writing children and teen books that should ideally be read aloud is not particularly common. Just the same, author Paul Fleischman has excelled at it time and time again. Long ago when I was young and unappreciative of anything that didn't involve "The Phantom of the Opera" (don't ask...it was a faze) I was given Fleischman's lovely Newbery Award winning, "Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices". I didn't really take to the book, partly because I was a little old for it when it first came out. Looking back at it recently, I could acknowledge that it was a lovely idea wrapped up in a succint little book. Fast forward some thirteen odd years later to the publication of "Seek". A particularly daring young adult novel, Fleischman has written a tale that is so flexible that it can either be read on the page or heard in a form of Reader's Theater. This is perhaps the first book I've read that was meant to be read on the radio.

Robert has a happy life in many ways. Living in San Francisco he shares a home with his adoring mother, grandfather, and grandmother. He has multiple aunts that dote upon him and a stable home. Though Robert appreciates these things, it's the absence of his father that affects him the most. Lenny, Robert's pop, left his mother when he found out that she was pregnant with their child. Because his father was a radio dj, Robert has a tape of one of Lenny's radio shows. Using this voice as a guide, the son embarks on a quest to ride the radio waves to find his missing dad. Covering a scope of many years and tracking Robert's heartbreak and eventual acceptance, the book is written like a radio program. Songs, snippets of voices from the past, sound effects, fades, crossfades, and other techniques all give the viewer a multi-layered look into one boy's head.

Reading this book, I admit right here and now that I was shocked at how mature "Seek"'s style was. I thought I was going to read your normal run-of-the-mill teen novel. Instead, I was caught completely off-guard when I found myself reading "We hear a wordless recording of wetland sound effects". From page one you realize that this is not teen drivel. It takes a bit of maturity and effort to get the feel of the book at the start. I can guarantee, however, that if you keep going you'll find yourself amply rewarded with a story that is as honest as it is enjoyable. Authors tend to play with fire when they introduce the parents-split-up-and-child-decided-to-find-one/get-them-back-together plotline. The danger is always there that the book's going to turn into a treacly (and dishonest) "Parent Trap" deal where everyone ends up happy nuclear family again by the end. I knew Fleischman was high on style, but how well can he actually... you know... write? Well, it turns out that he's superb. There's life and character to this tale. There are even (I kid you not) laugh out loud moments. As a child Rob often puts on a radio show for his family that's hilarious. As a teen, he's constantly ridiculing people in positions of power, hopefully giving readers some ideas of their own. And as for Rob's Union grandfather, I'm in love. I've yet to meet a grandfatherly figure in a book with half the vinegar and personality of that particularly fantastic character. I'm not going to give away the book's ending or anything. Let's just say the author of "Seek" knows what he can and cannot do in this tale.

I think the moral of this story is spoken by Rob's mother near the end. "Forgiving doesn't mean you approve of what someone did. It means you understand why they did it". I think that is, in essence, the gist of what Fleischman's trying to say here. But just as important as what he says is HOW he chooses to say it. For any kid who thinks they're up to the challenge of reading something a little out of the ordinary, "Seek" has their number.

In Seek, High School teenager Rob is assigned to write an autobiography based on his life so far. Rob reflects back on his life not with writing descriptions and dialog but with sounds bites. He remembers his grandmother telling him stories, his grandfather teaching him history, his mother watching Spanish soap operas with him, he and his friends creating a controversial and popular newspaper in school and most importantly his continuous love for the radio. He remembers listening the radio, searching the many channels in hope of one day hearing his father's voice come over for once, the father who abandoned him and his mother before birth because he didn't want a child. Seek is a really great book. This novel/play is a familiar story but told in an unfamiliar way, instead of descriptions it's told through simple sound bites. If you're in the mood for an honest, touching, and often humorous story about a boy's search for his father and growing up in the world this is defiantly for you. It's a rarity you see a YA book with such heart.

This book was very exciting and interseting to me. this book is a bout a boy named Rob, and he lives with his mother. In school he is assigned to write a autobiography about his life so far. He starts reflescting back to he early life and he remembers his mother watching spanish soap operas and always telling him what was happening. Also he remembers about how his grandfather use to always teach him about history, and his grandmother always telling him stories. He remebers him and his friends always listening to radios and watching channels to see if they could find his father or even listen to him. He wants to see his father so bad,even though he was the one who abandoned him and his mother before he was born because he didnt want a child.I thought this book was pretty good. I think that it was hard to follow the stories because there was more than one going a time. This book is a good book for anybody to read.

This is a really cool book!! You just can't put it down!!!
It is told as a collage of voices (which is an unusual way, but really neat). Robert Radkovitz is asigned to write an autobiography, and he decideds to do it audio.
At the beginning it's confusing, because you have no idea who the characters are or what their talking about. But as you move along, those questions are answered.
It's neat 'cause the author twists some humor into it. In some places I started laughing outloud!!!
I would really recommend this book!

Seek is fantastic. It's a whole new look at reader's theater and literature in general. The book takes a look at a boy who grew up among adults and is of above average intelligence. His whole life he has searched for his father who left his mother. The book takes you through his journey of trying to discover his father through thier mutual love of music and radio. The story is full of heart and truth and really delves into the mind of a boy with only one parent who has made peace with it. I would recommend this book to everyone! Young and old...it's fabulous