Starseeker Book Report

Has something in your life been so important that it changed your way of
being? Starseeker is a book written by the British author Tom Bowler, it tells the
story of Luke, a young boy who is about 14 years old, he suffers his father death
2 years before the story’s moment and this changed his whole life drastically. He
turns a terrible situation into a heroic feat. He overcomes the bullying and
aggression of a group of guys from his village which leads him to break into a
house to steal but he only finds a little girl and flees. After some time, he breaks
in again and is discovered by the house owner who makes him return frequently
for playing the piano and eventually discovers that the girl is kidnapped and he
gives her back to her parents. After he is victim of a mortal attack by his village’s
gang for failing in his assignment, but survives.

 Details of the Book:

o Editorial: Oxford University Press
o Year of Publish: 2002
o Country: United Kingdom
o Number of Pages: 323

 Themes of the book:

o Bullying
o Adolescence
o Rebellion
o Music
o Bad decisions.

 Characters:
o Luke Stanton: He is the protagonist of the book, he is around 14
years old, he has become angry and rude to people around him and
 he has distanced himself from his mother because she has a new
boyfriend, all of this due to his father death 2 years before. Luke
has an incredible talent for playing the piano which has inherited
from his father. He can play a piece of music perfectly after hearing
it only a few times, hear sounds and music that no one else can
hear, and see the colors of music, he has synesthesia. Now, his
once admired talent and respectable reputation is just a memory
because of his new friendship with a group of bad kids from his
school. After he is accepted by the gang, he starts to be bullied by
them and ends breaking into a house for stealing a box but only
finds a girl whose cry pursues him for most of the history. In the
deep he is a good boy, now frightened and unsure of what to do.
He has a great ability to climb trees and he spends great times of
his free moments in the forest, where he feels the trees take care
of him and they remember him of his dad’s moments in this place
together. He is also in love with Miranda, he doesn’t like Roger in
the beginning but at the ends he starts to accept him.

o Jason Skinner: He is the gang’s leader, his nickname is Skin, he

is very violent and bullies and threatens Luke greatly. He also hurts
Luke, he almost broke his thumbs, he burned Luke, almost kills him
and knocked him out more than once. He has a bad reputation in
the village and school, he wants to steal Mrs. Little’s box and at the
end his is under custody due to his acts.

o Darren Fisher: His nickname is Daz, he is named after his father

and obeys Skin always, whatever he wants, he will do it. He always
bothers Speedy because of his fatness.

o Bobby Speedwell: Nicknamed Speedy, he is fat but he is not as

bad as Skin or Daz, he does not help them when they try to kill Luke
and also tries to stop them when they are hitting him badly, he tells
Luke’s mom what has happened. He burps sometimes.
o Luke’s Mom: Her name is Kristy, she is Norwegian and is good
looking, most of the village was attracted by her. She was married
with Luke’s father, Mathew but after his death she got engaged with
Roger Gilmore. She tries to have a good relationship with Luke,
even though he behaves like if he would not care about her and
only wants to be far from her, she also tries hardly to make Luke
accept Roger as her boyfriend but she fails in both things until the
end of the book. She does not like Luke’s friends, especially Skin;
she does not like Luke to go to the forest or worst to climb trees as
she thought it was too dangerous. She always remember Luke that
he has got a gift and is as talented as his father was, she always
insists Luke to do good things and to keep practicing the Piano. She
is a sweet person and changes her attitude with Luke after he
truants from school.

o Mrs. Little: She is the owner of the Grange, the house where Luke
breaks in at the beginning of the story, she is now old and she thinks
she is ugly, ridiculous and disgusting. She was once married to Bill,
a pilot of the Second World War who died in action in 1940 in Bargin
Hill. She really loved him and after his death she was destroyed in
the inside and her dreams of having children vanished away. She
moves to India where she becomes a nurse and spends mostly of
her life in there, then she returns to England and his last familiar
who has her brother passes out. She is Natalie’s caregiver but also
she is the one who has her kidnapped, she is lovely, sweet and very
careful about her. She blackmails Luke and she usually got angry
with him easily. Probably she will found love again with Mr. Harding.

o Barley May Roberts: This is the real name of Natalie, she has a
mental illness which makes her have a 4 year old girl’s mind but
she is 10 years old. Once she was not under her parents care and
got away without intentions, then she had an accident and lost her
vision, then she was found by Mrs. Little, who took care of her.
 When her parents realized, she was looked for everywhere but
never found. Ms. Little has had her kidnapped for about 2 years.
When she was in the womb, her parents went to a Luke’s father
and listened to a song he played called “Reverie” which is her
favorite, this song connects her along with Luke. She may also have
synesthesia as she said she could imagine things while listening to
music. After she heard this piece, she starts to have an unbearable
behavior, she started to shout and cry without any break. She really
liked music and liked and trusted Luke because of this. Her weep
pursued Luke through the beginning of the story.

o Roger Gilmore: He is Luke’s mom’s boyfriend and he is a great

wood carver, he really likes Kristy and Luke and tries to be accepted
by him. He is a good man and saves Luke’s life.

o Mr. Harding: He is Luke’s piano teacher, he is old, he makes an

annual concert in which his students were the musicians, he also is
Miranda’s flute teacher, he knows about Luke’s special ability which
he doesn’t have and can’t understand it at all, he tells Luke about
the noises Luke hears and explains them to him, he is a very nice
person. He liked Luke’s father, he thinks he cannot teach anything
else to Luke and he always supports him. He says he wants to
move out of the village at the end, it seems he likes Ms. Little.

o Miranda Davis: She is Luke’s love, she is a sweet pretty girl which
likes Luke also, she plays the flute and is very nervous, her parents
are the owners of the Toby Jug, she goes to the same school that
Luke does, and she knows Luke is not alright and saves him once
from the gang. She kisses Luke at the end of the story. She also
admires Luke a lot due to his piano talent.

o Mathew Stanton: He is Luke’s father, he died 2 years previous the

history from cancer, he was a great pianist and a loved husband
 and father, everyone liked him a lot. He played at concerts in the
village. He also liked to climb trees and taught Luke to do so. His
death changed Luke’s Life and made him a “bad boy”. Luke feels
he is always with him at the end of the book and looks to him face-
to-face in the last scene. He was a good friend of Mr. Harding.

 Plot Stages:
o Luke is pursued by a weeping of a girl, he was the only one who
could hear it and did not know what it meant or where it came from,
he is a little scared.
o Luke wants to show the gang that he really wants to join to them, to
“confirm” if he is trustable, they send him to break into a house
during the night because he was the only one with the capabilities
of easy-climbing, and he just had to open the door for the gang,
they would do the rest. Luke finally breaks into the house but he just
finds a little girl who starts to cry, frightening him drastically, this
makes Luke run away from the house into the forest but he closed
the door on his way out, getting into a serious problem.
o Luke then understands where the weeping came from, the little girl.
He was very scared and heard his gang behind him, he knew he
was going to be beat up so he climbed a tree and stay there for a
while but when he got down, thinking they had left, he was badly
hit.
o Luke goes back at home, and has arguments with his mom about
what had just happened to him, it is evident that he is not having
the best relationship with his mom, then she tells dad Luke’s father
was dead and then Roger Gilmore is called into the history as
Luke’s mom’s boyfriend, this makes the relationship weird.
o Skin then tells Luke that he must go inside again and achieve what
he was asked to, eventually Luke breaks in again but he is
discovered by Mrs. Little and she blackmails him telling him that she
would tell the police if he would not do what she requested. She
asked Luke to play the piano to her “granddaughter Natalie”. She
was a blind and mental ill girl.
o Luke exits the house by the entrance making Skin suspicious of
what could have happened, then Skin starts to make questions but
don’t believe Luke, he grabs Luke’s thumbs threatening to break
them if he does not say the true, even though Luke kept lying but
Skin let him go, he believed in what Luke said.
o Luke starts to go to Mrs. Little House and starts to play for Natalie,
they become friends and they start to talk, Luke feels there is a
connection between them, he is impressed of how Natalie can
remember and imagine things from the songs, for example when
he played “Peace of the Forest” and she said she could see trees,
leaves and other things, when Luke played “Twinkle Star” she could
see and even drew a star. This meant both had synesthesia.
o Luke start to truant from school to return to the Grange and he
discovers that Natalie is in an awful state, she cries and shouts as
she has never done. The only way she calms down is when Luke
plays the piano. Then Natalie hums a melody that is known to Luke,
a melody who was played by his dad and had not heard for a long
time.
o Luke goes to Mr. Harrison’s and he tells he wanted to know he
song’s name and discovers it is “Reverie”, then he returns at the
Grange and finds that Natalie is even worse than before, he played
everything he knew but nothing worked, until he starts to play
Reverie and she calms down, while doing so, Luke feels good and
starts to feel that he is setting himself free from all the negative
things that surrounded him, his resentment to his mom for example.
o Luke finds out about Mrs. Little life and also finds a bracelet that
said “Barley May Roberts” and a phone number, he searches for it
on internet and finds out the story of a disappeared girl and when
he saw the picture, he recognized Natalie.
o Luke does not know what to do, he finally decides to give Barley
back to her parents, when Mrs. Little gets distracted, he takes
Barley into the forest the faster he could and after a plan he had
with Barley’s parents, he gave her back to them.
o On his ways back he is ambushed by the gang who beat badly
Luke, he gets away and climbs into his old oak tree friend, then the
gang starts a fire in the tree, Luke achieves to call Roger and tell
him he is in danger and to help him, Luke tries to get away from the
smoke but on his way down he cannot stand anymore and faints,
Roger gets in time and try to catch Luke, he probably cushioned
Luke’s fall and avoid Luke to have any physical injuries but in
exchange he gets a broken wrist, two broken ribs and a dislocated
shoulder. Luke actually dies but he gets back in the last moment.
The ambulance arrives and both are saved.
o The police takes custody of the gang due to assassination attempt,
Luke was now safe, he remembers he had the concert and insists
he must play, even though he was not in the conditions of doing so.
o Luke gets better and talks to Mrs. Little, at the beginning it looked
that she had had an overdose so Luke was desperate but found out
she took the proper amount. Luke then talks with Mrs. Little and
she tells him the whole story about Natalie, she tells him that she
knew it was wrong but it was the closest thing to have a daughter
she had ever had, finally she accepts what Luke did with no
grudges.
o Mrs. Little asks Luke to play an special melody her husband used
to play to her, he tells her he will only play it in the concert, she gets
angry and kicks out him of the house.
o Luke goes to the concert and plays the melody, he realizes that
Mrs. Little is among the public, he also plays along with Miranda
and then ends the concert with a melody which was composed by
him as a tribute to his father.
o Miranda and Luke go to the forest because Luke wanted to spend
some time with her and they went to the oak tree, he then sees a
shadow and goes to investigate alone, it was his father and they
share the moment looking at each other, then Luke returns to where
Miranda was and starts to cry, she starts to cry as well and then
they kiss each other.
 Conflict:
o Internal:
 Luke knows he has changed and has been a bad son, he
goes out and comes late, he has a bad behavior and is
indifferent and rude to her. He knows he must change his
attitude but simply he can’t because Roger as a boyfriend
makes everything more uncomfortable and harder.

 Luke has realized the gang is dangerous and he is frightened

but doesn’t know a way to leave it without being hurt. He just
tries to make time to think and to make everything well.

 Luke does not what to do with Barley, give her back to her
parents and make Mrs. Little suffer or do nothing but know
that the legit owners of Barley, her parents, are suffering and
the correct thing is to give her back.

 What to do about his relationship with Miranda, as he really

cared and liked her. He did not want to hurt her or to lose
her.

o External
 When he does not do what Skin wants, he could have left
the door opened in the beginning but close it without noticing
and ran into the forest, this gives an start between Luke and
Skin for getting the box, Luke does not want to continue but
Skin makes him continue by the force and threats. Because
of this, Luke just gets intro major problems with more people,
he also gets injured several times by Skin who does not
accept the continuous failing of Luke. Luke is almost killed
because of this and Roger is seriously injured.

 Luke does not like his mom to love another man who is not
his father and is kind of resented with her and due to all of
 this he starts to separate from his mother and behave rude
to her, but the inside he feels really sad and confused. His
mom tries her best to improve their relationship, she even
lets him do whatever he wants. She works really hard to
make Luke accept Roger as a possible step father but he
just hates him and behave rude as well. At the end he
accepts and starts to like Roger.

 When Luke breaks into The Grange, he is discovered by

Mrs. Little who blackmails him by saying she will tell the
police if he does not do what she wants to do. His task was
simple, go to the Grange and play the piano for “Natalie”, her
“granddaughter” who was dependent from it, once she cry a
lot until the piano tuner, tune the piano and when she
listened to it she stopped crying. Luke had to visit her
frequently and he also fell he had to do so, he felt sorry for
the little girl and for the old lady. At the end he discovers the
girl was never his granddaughter or even part of her family,
and that she had her kidnapped.
 Luke also has to play with Miranda in the concert, she really
wants him to play with her and asks him to accompany her.
They have to practice but due to Luke’s problem they just get
to practice once and Miranda was disappointed at the
beginning.

 Luke has problems at school because he is truanting, he

falsified mails from her mom’s mail and he got discovered,
getting in big problems.

 Subplots:
o The conflict between Luke and his mom.
o Luke not accepting Roger as his mother’s boyfriend.
o Luke playing with Miranda in the concert and they did not practice
what they should have.
 o Luke problems at school, not doing the homework, truanting, etc.
o The way Luke felt about Miranda, he really liked her and did not
want to lose her or not to be as close as they were.
o The death of Luke’s father.
o Luke’s sadness due to what everything he was going through.

 Narrator:
o The narrator is omniscient, he knows everything and tells
everything, he also is present in the whole story and tells the story
from outside.

 Rhetorical Devices
o Irony:
“He stared to play “Pavane”… it was perhaps a little mournful and
he wasn’t sure he should be playing something once written in
memory of a dead child, but in a strange way the music seemed to
mirror the mood he felt and he wondered about the part of Natalie
that had died in the accident” Pages 152-153

o Repetition:
“-And Leaves? - He said, still playing.-Can you see the leaves?-.
-Lots of leaves-
-Lots of leaves?-
-Lots and lots-“ Page 184
o Paligloglia
“-Barley- he murmured, staring at her photograph again. –Barley,
Barley, Barley-” Page 226

o Alliteration:
“Speed spoke again, feverishly.
-Skin, listen we…-
-Shut up, Speedy- Said Skin
-Skin, we…-
-Shut up I said! - Skin glared at Speedy.” Page 254
 Key theme of the History.
o Bullying: The story tells what bullying can take people to do,
basically Luke had had ruined his life for joining the gang, he was
not respected nor admired as he once was, he also had to break
into the house because of Skin’s pressure, this triggers the plot and
the whole story, the Mrs. Little problem, the decreasement in the
quality of Luke and his mom’s relation. The incorrect decisions he
elected to do, etc.

 Symbolism:
o The star: The star that Natalie drew when Luke asked her if she
knew what a star was, might mean hope or even can relate to the
title of the book, starseeker.

o The trees of the forest might represent the friends or the people
who will always support you and be there for you when you need
them, the Oak tree is the major exponent of this, as he is the one
who you always go to when you are in big trouble and it would give
his life for saving yours.

o The spirit of Mathew Stanton, he shows that people is not alone,

there is always someone who will love us, and will help us, even if
we think they will not be there for us, they will be because they care
about us.

 Author Purpose:
o He tries to tell how life is balanced, Luke had a beautiful childhood,
now has a difficult adolescence and has a lot of problems, but he
has mastered the piano playing right now, he is not loved nor
respected, but recover his status is easy, he is being bullied but he
also has the support of many people, he was almost killed but the
man who he most hated, saved his life. Also it shows how badly
 bullying can be and what it can make make people do.

 Writing Style:
o His writing style is vanguardist, it is surrealistic, liberal, there is no
religion involved, the characters change along with the story.
o The author uses many rhetorical devices, he mixes dialogues with
narration, the changes in the plot are unexpected and good.
o The language is very elaborated some times.

 Strengths and weaknesses

o Strengths:
 The book development is unexpected, there is no use of
drugs or sex, something very common nowadays, and the
use of violence is moderated.
 The solutions and decisions of the characters are
unexpected as well, one thing looks obvious but it never
happens giving the book a nice taste.
 The main character has an interesting life, an interesting
problem and his decisions are fun, this makes you want to
keep reading.
 The thrilling of the story is great, the more you read, the more
questions you ask yourself.
 The use of the details are perfect, there is no lack nor excess
of these, they are in the exact amount.

o Weaknesses:
 The vocabulary used is not very common, so it makes some
scenes harder to understand, they need to be read again
and that kind of loses the attention of the reader.
 Some parts of the book lack of an interesting point that hooks
you to the lecture.
 Sometimes the scenes can be confused or not well
understood.
  The beginning of the book is senseless if you don’t read until
the mid-part and some other parts are senseless if you don’t
read until the end.
 A little bit more information about Luke’s past and details of
his parents are missing.

 Final impression.

I really liked the book, it made realize that everybody can do heroic things and
can have a good end even though we must face tough realities in our lives. Luke
was going through a crisis, a moral and psychological problem, he also suffered
from aggression, he did not get along with his mother, etc. And he faced all of his
problems at the same time, he rescued a kidnapped girl, he survived the mortal
attack, he got the love of his life, he could accept his mom’s boyfriend. Luke
overcomes himself and returns as a renewed Old-Luke (the Luke who lived when
his father did also).

I enjoyed the book, I was looking forward to finish it so I could answer all the
questions I had about the story, it was an excellent work from Tim Bowler and I
am glad I could have read it.