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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
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