Seek

by Paul Fleischman

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.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Teen, Audiobook, Plays, Childrens

Audio

First published September 9, 2001

About the author

Paul Fleischman grew up in Santa Monica, California. The son of well-known children's novelist Sid Fleischman, Paul was in the unique position of having his famous father's books read out loud to him by the author as they were being written. This experience continued throughout his childhood.
Paul followed in his father's footsteps as an author of books for young readers, and in 1982 he released the book "Graven Images", which was awarded a Newbery Honor citation.
In 1988, Paul Fleischman came out with "Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices", an unusually unique collection of poetry from the perspective of insects. This book was awarded the 1989 John Newbery Medal. Factoring in Sid Fleischman's win of the John Newbery Medal in 1987 for his book "The Whipping Boy", Paul and Sid Fleischman became to this day the only father and son authors to both win the John Newbery Medal.

Reviews

[Daniel Perkins]

When I first started reading this, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of the multi-voice style. But by the end of it I enjoyed the format and the story itself. The reason I makes this a “spoiler” review is because of this: I loved how the book came full circle with the Day of the Dead and the gumbo. A pretty good read overall.

[Walter]

On September 14, 2001, at the Sonoma County Library in Santa Rosa, I adapted and directed the world premiere of this work, a radio play in novel form. We performed it as a radio play in front of a live audience, a collaboration between the local Sonoma County NPR affiliate and the Central Santa Rosa branch of the Sonoma County PL. One of Fleischman's richest and most demanding works, it screams to be performed and not left on the page. It was a glorious experience--the author was in attendance--and the play was very well received.

[Melissa]

At first the multi-voice format was frustrating. It disrupted my ability to read smoothly, and forced me to go back several times so that I could be sure I had attributed something to the correct character. However, I can see this being a very successful class project where each YA reads for a different part. In that way, I could see the confusion disappearing. It would be much less frustrating to hear this book, which pairs perfectly with the idea of an audio-autobiography of memories. I also appreciated the addition of characters, like the grandparents, who added necessary humor to a book that could have been quite sad. I really enjoyed the main character, Rob. He was written as such an interesting person, and I found myself wishing that he would locate his dad. When his father finally did phone him, I was so happy for him, but then so relieved when he realized how great his life was even if he didn’t have this man in it. Part of me was hoping for the Disney-style happy ending where he’d have this great relationship with his father, but part of me was glad that he was able to accept that this man didn’t need to be part of his life. I think that YAs who are readers by nature would enjoy the book. YAs that are more reluctant readers would probably respond more positively to the book being used as a performance in class, as that might be easier to follow. I would not hesitate to recommend this book.

[Liz]

An interesting book about a boy's coming of age and his search through the airwaves for his absent DJ father, Lenny. This book was unique in that it was written to sound/read like a radio drama. It would be great adapted for a stage performance!

I liked Seek for it’s groundbreaking format—the radio drama—because it gave a theatrical and technological twist to what could have been a more dark and depressing story. I thought the author conveyed Rob’s feelings and frustrations well in an interwoven autobiography and made the reader feel as though the story were being told over a scratchy radio frequency. There were a few instances toward the middle/end of the book when I thought Lenny would appear, like before Rose and Andy got married, and give good reason for his departure however, this didn’t happen until way too late (I thought) in the book. I thought the most noteworthy characteristic of Seek was the way in which Fleischman created a kind of symphony of voices with his multitude of characters, lending a melodic quality to a well-written novel.

[Desmond Dean]

This was not the best book I have ever read. The reason I didn't like this particular book was I got lost in about the middle of the book start really bad and then it started to talk about his mom and it really didn't make any sense at all. I also didn't like how the Author wrote the book it was like he tried to make the book a very long play for the reader which I hated that's another thing that might have made lose what is happening. If you are thinking about reading this book I highly advise you not to read it. overall this is the worst book I have ever read.

[Kyle Weiscopf]

So in my introduction i think Seek is a good book because
it starts off with ''high school senior Rob Radkovitz. which he decides
to ''ĺisten''back on his old life''. Also it talks about alot of
radio announcers in this story. Secondly another reason i love this
story it is very exciting like at one point i wanted to know more on
what happened to Rob in this story. More characters are Boy Rob
and Robs Grandfather. So overall i really enjoy reading this book
it is very amazing.

[Colin Roberts]

Part 8 of my quick foray into all the middle grade novels I've had on my bookshelf for more than 10 years that I never got around to reading when I was younger so I can make room for more books on my shelf:

One of the most interesting books I think I've ever read. I tried reading this book at one point, I think I was in 7th grade, and I wasn't super interested in it and probably didn't understand the format as well as I could've. Oh well, I thoroughly enjoyed it this time around.

The disjointed back and forth, cut off in the middle of sentences format that this author approaches this book with is unique and takes time to figure out. That being said, once you figure it out, you go back to the first few pages and it still doesn't quite make sense. But once you wrap your head around what is happening it is a fascinating read that develops well and saves details to the end in a great way. Characters are introduced suddenly but in ways that fit.

Overall, this is a project I think I would've enjoyed doing in high school. Would it have been as creative? I'm not sure about that, but it would've been fun. The spoken word performance aspect of the book is something that I would also love doing a performance of. It really just seems like a fun concept and challenge to try and produce.

[Sarah]

Rob is required to write his autobiography for school, but his life has always been about sounds. He decides to create an audio experience using the people he loves, radio clips, audiobook clips, poems, and other miscellenous audio to tell his story. Rob's father left around the time he was born. His dad never wanted a child, but Rob's mother wanted him dearly. Rob's mother and grandparents have raised him with all the love, but even with their love he must confront these issues he has with never knowing his dad.

I read this novel, though I wish I would have seen it performed as a reader's theater or better yet, heard on an audio book. It was good for what it was and I think guys dealing with parental issues could see themselves in this book.

[Monica Caldicott]

What’s that button on the radio that you push when you don’t know what station to listen to? It runs through all of the channels with good reception. Seek.

Yes, that’s what life is like for high school senior, Rob, who only knows the father he never met was a radio DJ. On a hunt for his father, Rob haunts the radio stations. First, the local ones, then using an amplified AM receiver and finally going global on a short wave set.

Read p. 44: “I wasn’t taller than my mother until ninth grade …”

Told as a radio drama, using as many as 50 different voices, Seek is an amazing novel of music, sound, and secrets. Tune in to this choral symphony, sit back, read – and listen.

[Cal]

I haven’t heard the audio but I have to read the book for class. It’s confusing. It’s like the author is trying to write a play or something.
Reading the book is confusing. At first someone will be speaking but then cut off to another person talking about something completely unrelated. Then there’s random parts of tv people speaking which I don’t get. (Then again I am only in the middle of the book)

[Carlton Moore]

"But on the other side, there's harmony. That's where artists live. They're telling us about it. They don't listen to the depressing headlines on the news. They're busy listening to the Music of the Spheres. And writing down what it sounds like. And it's full of joy. And it might surprise some folks, but it's not church hymns, or requiems, or like that. The Music of the Spheres -- I've studied up on it, so you can take it from me -- it's Big Band music.”

[Diane]

Rob lives with his mother and grandparents, but has never met his father. All he had of his father's is a sound effects record and a tape of his Golden Oldies radio show. Rob is determined to catch a glimpse of his father on the radio, so he stays up at night searching the airwaves: first with a regular radio, then a ham and then a shortwave radio.

[Erin]

This seemed like a pretty interesting audio experiment. However the digital stream hit about the 2 hour mark & wouldn't play any further.

[Seth]

I honestly have no idea how the print version of this works. The fully cast audiobook is excellent tho!

[Cathlina Bergman]

Really cool story told in a play about a boy growing up without a father but seeking him on the radio waves. You MUST read this with the audiobook! A complete cast, music, and sound effects!

[Cheryl]

If I had listened to it with a teacher’s ear for my students, it would get 4 stars.

[Elena]

This ended up being a bizarrely personal read for me. I say "bizarrely" because in the usual way of things, this is precisely the kind of book I least enjoy reading: experimental style that causes distance from the characters, boring old mainstream fiction (I tend to prefer fantasy), not much of a plot, no action to speak of. Nevertheless, my reading experience was so personal, in fact, that what follows is hardly even a review, but more an explorations of my own past and how it intertwined with my reading of this novel.

I think this is the first book I've ever read about a fatherless kid whose father isn't dead. Oh, there are books about adopted kids, kids who's dads took off post-divorce and just send cards for birthdays, kids who have deadbeat dads who just show up every once in a while and then disappear again, kids whose dads are abusive or drug users, etc. etc. There are plenty of negligent fathers in YA fiction. But this is the only book I've read that approximated my own situation: a father who couldn't handle the idea of fatherhood and took off before the kid was even born, never to be heard from again.

I found I could empathize with Rob intensely, not because of any real characteristics of the story (I still maintain that bizarre stylistic choices like the one Fleschman made here only distance readers) but because his experiences mirrored my own in many ways, right down to his feeling supplanted in his mother's affections when she has her first serious relationship when he's in high school (for me, it was middle school) and the way he reacts when his father finally does show up. (My dad still hasn't bothered with any mysterious out-of-the-blue phone calls, but I'd imagine my reaction would be pretty similar to Rob's.)

As I read the story, I found myself caught up in the ways in which my own experiences were similar to or contrasted with Rob and his relationship to the idea of his father, and I was stunned at how, well, true it was. This book didn't have much plot. There was zero action. There wasn't even much drama. This is how life actually is.

In the opening of the third Aladdin movie (shut up, I was an Aladdin fanatic as a kid), there's this song about how Aladdin grew up without a dad and how he'll never be a man and be able to marry Jasmine and start a family of his own until he finally finds his father and discovers what kind of man he'll be. My 12-year-old self nearly ripped the tape out of the VCR and threw it against the wall. I grew up without a dad, and I certainly don't feel some giant, gaping lack of father figure in my life. In fact, like Rob in Seek, I felt really resentful when a man moved in and started monopolizing my mom's time. Would I have liked to sit down and have a conversation with my father about what an asshole he was? Yes. Would never having that conversation have an adverse effect on how I lived the rest of my life? Hell no. But most fictional representations of kids with only one parent basically convey the message that you can't be a whole person unless you have (or have had in the past) two parents, and that pisses me off.

This book didn't piss me off.

(At least not on that count. I still maintain that if Fleischman wanted to tell his story using sounds, he should have just released it as an audiobook and not done this weird textual representation of something that isn't meant to be text. *cough*)

[Jo]

So, I read this once years ago and liked it, but I forgot what it was called. I happened upon this copy in my local used book shop for $1, so I pounced all over that, though I didn't remember that this was the book. The part that stuck with me most was the little bit where Rob's mom says that Lenny could take the hum of an airplane's engine and make a whole little ditty out of it, with the engine as the drone. I thought that was so cool. But I remembered all the radio stuff, too. I'd get to talking about it with someone or it'd come up in some class or another, and I'd be all, "Oh, yea, that happens with radios and radiowaves and stuff."

Anyway, that's kind of besides the point, which is that this book is kind of awesome. It's more like a script than a novel, which, for me, makes the voices more unique. But because it's more of a radio script, it's easier to get through than a real script, where the stage directions and descriptions can get it the way as much as help you imagine the setting. And I can hear different people in my head saying these things. And, yea, that happens anyway, but while reading Seek, it was more like hearing different people than like hearing different versions of me, which is kind of how it can be reading a regular novel. Or hearing me-colored versions of different people.

Also a bonus: I started it on the train to school in the morning and finished it by the time I got home. It's the perfect book for me to go back to as a quick reprieve from stress without feeling guilty for spending too much time reading and not enough time working or studying or practicing. Win.

[Becky]

This coming-of-age story is written in the form of a radio script, sound effects and all. The main character, Rob, is a radio junkie by way of his absent father, who is a DJ. When Rob's father left, he left behind a sound-effects album and a recording of his own radio show. Young Rob plays both recordings obsessively, and eventually becomes obsessed with broadcasting as well, starting with novelty shows that can only be heard within his own house, but progressing to his own pirate station.

Through it all, he draws parallels to the man who ran out on him. He scans the radio dial tirelessly, hoping one day to hear his father's voice. When Rob starts broadcasting, he wonders if his father lives near enough to listen to his show, and if his father will one day reach out to him.

The book is full of characters, many of them incidental, and sometimes the mob of voices becomes confusing. The "lost father" theme also seemed a little too hammered-home at times, and I wondered if the book could have been shorter. All in all, though, this is a timeless story in a unique format -- worth reading, probably worth rereading, and worth performing with some of your friends.

[Reyna Jasmer]

Fleischman adds another layer to his use of multiple perspectives with his addition of sound bytes and radio in his novel Seek. Rob is assigned to do an autobiography for class and in a non-traditional way decides to use sounds to tell his story that focuses on his search for his absent father as well as his discovery of who he is as a person. At times, the book was hard to follow as it switched between characters and their sound bytes almost like a disconnected conversation, but after a bit I was able to follow. I would suggest keeping a bookmark that you can write the names of the characters on to make it easier to follow. Now that I have listened to/read several of Fleischman’s books, I wish I had done that as it seems to be a trademark of his to use multiple perspectives. I would recommend this to anyone middle school or higher. It might be fun to use excerpts from the book to introduce a non-traditional autobiography project to a class. I highly recommend listening to this one on audiobook for the full effect.

[Krystl Louwagie]

2007 audio book review:

This book was about a boy that had to write an autobiography for school, and that's what the book was. However, this was almost meant to be an audio book instead of a real book, because the whole theme of the book was radio clips and sounds, clips of voices and conversations, interviews, etc. This was because the boy's father had left him when he was just a baby, but he was a radio dj, and he left the boy some recordings of his show when he left. The boy was obsessed with listening to the radio, trying to find where his dad was now-so the the radio sound bits were really important to him.
This book was a full cast, and everything sounded EXACTLY like it had been from a radio and then collaged together. It was really neatly juxtaposed together.
The story and what happens in the book, and the conclusion, aren't exceptional, but they way it's all put together is.

[Hilary]

It's the day for reader's theater! Fleischman always does such smart stuff that takes on multiple characters or perspectives and winds it together in a clean, neat way. Seek was no exception. At first, the overlapping, layered, multiple voices format was confusing--there are just so many characters--but I quickly got the hang of it. It's a coming of age, reflective, boy's search for meaning kind of story, filled with wacky people like his Marx loving grandfather, yoga doing stepdad, baseball announcers, radio personalities, girlfriend, etc. We're going to listen to this in class on Thursday and I'm excited for it.

[Alison]

Simply, I LOVED IT. The first few pages were a slight struggle to get the various voices straight in my head, but after that was accomplished, I flew through the book. I was captivated by Rob’s quest through the airwaves for his dad and actually let out an audible gasp when I realized who was on the phone that Halloween night. I loved the clarity Rob achieves when he realizes he’s pleased with his life and could not ask for more, not even his forever absent father. I also like how Fleischman wrote this to be easily made into a play, able to be performed in any time period.

[Barbara]

Seek was an interesting novel. I actually had to read it twice. It's written in the form of a play and there is alot of dialogue between the characters. Characters? There were a plenty... all very interesting, especially the main character's family. The mom in the story was pretty interesting because she, throughout the book, would speak in both Spanish and French... I understood what she was saying. I wouldn't mind reading over again.

[EAL]

Paul Fleischman likes unique formats, doesn't he? In this book, the "unique format" felt rather choppy in the beginning, but after the first few pages it evened out. I don't have much familiarity with radio, yet the portrayal felt accessible. Themes of family and "finding yourself," so easily overdone, were elegantly handled; I found the resolution satisfying rather than saccharine. Perhaps the message is "honor the past but know when to move on."

[Mara]

Style reminded me a little of Other Electricities, as it's an ongoing dialogue/narrative written almost like a play. Unique means to portray the windy road traveled by a creative boy who grows to a young man in a vibrant family missing only a father. I like the idea of using air waves as a means to search the limits of space for what we think we're missing. Good read.

[Erin Reilly-Sanders]

I really enjoyed the cacophony of "sounds" in this radio play-styled book. I didn't get into the audio as much, because some of the voices didn't sound "right" or the way they did in my head- the Spanish soap opera star especially. I did love the feel of the book and how it contributed to to the protagonist's quest. I think it would be a lot of fun as a read aloud.

[Keith]

I listened to the audio book of Seek and I imagine I got a whole different experience than people who read the book. With all of the audio memories that pop up it really gives for a unique listening experience. There isn't a whole lot to the story, but that's ok. It's the world that you enter and the search for emotional connection that makes the journey worthwhile.

[Mary Ann]

Assigned to write about memories this high school student writes an autobiography of his life of being abandoned by his father before he was born, and the subsequent search for that missing father. Written in a format that can be used in a 'reader's theater' setting the author uses a multitude of characters to tell this story.

[Marianne]

This book is absolutely incredible...when I read it, I found it somewhat hard to follow -- I can't read plays very well, either -- but listening to it was awesome. I highly recommend it to anyone with a young boy in their life -- yes, Marianne, you did just make a gender specific recommendation -- there is something about it, I think, that speaks very specifically to boys, and their fathers.