Books with author Paul Fleishman

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.

With a family always on the move, popularity and the ability to fit in quickly are vital to Brent Bishop's high school survival. When he blows his chances with the girl of his dreams in front of everyone, he's devastated. Brent tries to end it all in a fatal car crash, but instead he finds an unlikely beginning. He's sent on a journey of repentance--a cross-country trip building whirligigs. His wind toys are found by people in need: a Maine schoolgirl yearning for her first love, a Miami street-sweeper desperate for peace and quiet, a kid in Washington who just wants to play baseball, and a San Diego teenager dealing with loss. Brent's whirligigs bring hope to others, but will they be able to heal the wounds deep inside himself?

Aimed at a generation of short attention spans and a taste for razor-sharp comedy, the rapid-fire Zap is a smart, farcical play for high-school students that's ready to bring the house down.When they're not dusting off the old classics — over and over — high-school drama departments are constantly in search of new material. But what play could possibly suit the point-and-click attention spans of kids born with remote controls in their cribs? Cue the lights for Zap, a nonstop farce that juxtaposes seven different plays — performed simultaneously — with a comic genius reminiscent of masters from Monty Python to the Marx Brothers. Combining spot-on parodies of Anton Chekhov, Agatha Christie, Tennessee Williams, Samuel Beckett, Neil Simon and performance art and throwing in scenes from Richard III for good measure, Zap flicks rapidly back and forth from play to play, with hilarious results. As characters from one play end up on the set of another, their befuddlement, exasperation, and brave attempts at improvisation are truly priceless. A hoot to read, Zap is a dream to perform — as high schools in California, New York, and Florida have already discovered.

Eighty-eight-year old Elva and Courtney, an attractive sixteen-year-old with a severed spinal chord, lie in adjacent beds in a grim Bismarck, North Dakota convalescent home. Ignored by the world, the only resource they have left is their imagination.As Elva and Courtney go on a fantasy trip to Italy (accompanied by Elva's long dead husband and guided by a 1910 travel book), Elva shows Courtney a new way to envision love. But to accept it, and the gift of the imagination, Courtney must make the trip her own--even if she destroys the art Elva holds most dear.Written entirely in dialogue, Mind's Eye can be performed as reader's theater, but it is a fully satisfying novel. In this extraordinarily innovative, profound, and yet readable book Paul Fleischman makes us all feel what a powerful--and dangerous--tool the imagination can be.

"This takeoff on teen horror novels is funny, mocking, and a surefire hit. . . . Should have teen-horror fans screaming with laughter." — SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL (starred review)In Paul Fleischman’s hilarious parody of teenage horror novels, Danielle and her friends from Cliffside High’s cruelest clique — the Huns — set out to crush a ravishing exchange student from Norway. Will they go as far as murder? They have before. But as they plot and plan, they start to realize that something ghastly has started to happen to them, something they would no doubt describe as a fate totally worse than death!