Get Free Ebook Icy Sparks (Oprah's Book Club), by Gwyn Hyman Rubio
Get Free Ebook Icy Sparks (Oprah's Book Club), by Gwyn Hyman Rubio
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Icy Sparks (Oprah's Book Club), by Gwyn Hyman Rubio
Get Free Ebook Icy Sparks (Oprah's Book Club), by Gwyn Hyman Rubio
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Amazon.com Review
The eponymous heroine of Gwyn Rubio's Icy Sparks is only 10 years old the first time it happens. The sudden itching, the pressure squeezing her skull, and the "little invisible rubber bands" attached to her eyelids are all symptoms of Tourette's syndrome. At this point, of course, Icy doesn't yet have a name for these unsettling impulses. But whenever they become too much to resist, she runs down to her grandparents' root cellar, and there she gives in, croaking, jerking, cursing, and popping her eyes. Nicknamed the "frog child" by her classmates, Icy soon becomes "a little girl who had to keep all of her compulsions inside." Only a brief confinement at the Bluegrass State Hospital persuades her that there are actually children more "different" than she. As a first novel about growing up poor, orphaned, and prone to fits in a small Appalachian town, Icy Sparks tells a fascinating story. By the time the epilogue rolls around, Icy has prevailed over her disorder and become a therapist: "Children silent as stone sing for me. Children who cannot speak create music for me." For readers familiar with this particular brand of coming-of-age novel--affliction fiction?--Icy's triumph should come as no great surprise. That's one problem. Another is Rubio's tendency to lapse into overheated prose: this is a novel in which the characters would sooner yell, pout, whine, moan, or sass a sentence than simply say it. But the real drawback to Icy Sparks is that some of the characters--especially the bad ones--are drawn with very broad strokes indeed, and the moral principles tend to be equally elementary: embrace your difference, none of us is alone, and so on. When Icy gets saved at a tent revival, even Jesus takes on the accents of a self-help guru: "You must love yourself!" With insights like these, this is one Southern novel that's more Wally Lamb than Harper Lee. --Mary Park
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From Booklist
Growing up in a small town in Kentucky, young Icy Sparks is set apart from her classmates by her weird mannerisms and strange noises. Not until she becomes an adult does Icy learn that her tics, croaks, and groans are all part of Tourette's syndrome, a neurological disease of which few people in the 1950s were aware. As a child, Icy suffers through taunts and mockery by her classmates. Even the adults closest to her--her loving grandparents who raise her, her school principal, and her despicable fourth-grade teacher--view her with alarm. Icy is sent to a children's asylum, where doctors try to discover the cause of her disease. While she is in the asylum, Icy begins to see beyond her own differences to the sufferings of others far worse off than she. Although many of the characters in this first novel are portrayed so simplisticly that they are either very good or unbelievably bad, this is a fast-moving and enjoyable narrative. A good choice for public libraries. Nancy Pearl
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Product details
Series: Oprah's Book Club
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Penguin Books (March 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0142000205
ISBN-13: 978-0142000205
Product Dimensions:
5.1 x 0.9 x 7.7 inches
Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
3.6 out of 5 stars
290 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#609,654 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
My son has Tourette's Syndrome so I was especially excited to read this. I know every case is different but the way it presented itself was so very different than my sons experience. I also had a hard time relating to Icy in any way. I found myself wishing the book would end so I could read something else-never a good sign, but I didn't give up; I did finish it.
Did not enjoy this book at all. The characters were unlikeable, unrealistic, and no one who was 'bad' ever got what was coming to them. This book had the potential to really shed light on Tourette's syndrome, but instead, it took unlikeable characters and created more disdain for their maladies. Also, there was so much extra plot that was unnecessary and made it harder to read than it should have been.
I took months to finish this book and only did so to quiet that Tourette-like OCD that often tyrannically rules my brain. I found it repetitive, meandering, overly pandering, insulting to obese women, and sometimes utterly boring. BUT .. IT GETS WORSE... I listened to it on the audio book, and that was even worse. The reader chose to try to present the book as a sort of one woman play, and it didn't go well. The regional accents were not accurate. The voices were often annoying, and the worst thing ever was the "singing" toward the end of the book. I found myself saying out loud, "please don't sing!" more than once. The narrator's singing voice was not unpleasant, but she was just making up her own melodies for old and well respected hymns that she could easily have learned. If you're going to sing, at least learn the correct melody, please! So, in short, I would never recommend this book to anyone and cannot understand why it won awards. Tourette's Syndrome sufferers deserve better. Apologies to those who loved it. Not my cup of tea.
Icy Sparks is an interesting book. One of its primary assets is the beautiful descriptive prose used throughout the book. Also, it gives a vivid portrayal of the disorder which plagued Icy. However, the story really bogged down in the middle with a drawn out hospital stay, homeschooling, and lags in action. I thought surely we would come to the discovery of the disorder and hope for the future, but it didn't come until the epilogue and was strictly a report, disappointing.
I really enjoyed the characters in this book especially Icy. To see this girl grow into a woman and travel along her road to acceptance. The book takes place in n the mountainous areas of coal country where sophistication isn't important but the globe that Icy has from family and friends does sustain her. It does start ow but then is a page turner.
This was not my usual type of reading, but I was quickly engulfed be the story and to learn not of just what affliction Icy suffered from, but in how she grewup in the small Kentucky blessed with people who loved her for who she was and help her to become who they seen she could be. Heart warming and very entertaining.
This is one of those books once you read ten pages of the book you will not be able to put it down. I read this book in two days because I could not put it down except to sleep. This book is very sad; however, it is a great book and this is in my list of top ten books. I felt very close to the characters in the book and the emotions they were going through. The book is realistic in terms of real life scenarios. Great book and would recommend to anyone looking for a great book to read. This book will touch your heart for sure. Great book
Icy Sparks tracks the life of a bright and curious young girl with Tourette's Syndrome from age ten to adulthood. The protagonist, Icy Sparks, is from the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky. She is raised by her loving grandparents named Matanni and Patanni; an empathic friend named Miss Emily; and a caring school principal named Mr. Wooten.At the age of ten, Icy starts to have uncontrollable urges to pop out her eyes. The urge is "so intense it was, like an itch needing to be scratched. I [Icy] could feel little invisible rubber bands fastened to my eyelids, pulled tight through my brain." Not only did Icy suffer from eye-popping tics, she also suffered from an uncontrollable need to verbally outburst thoughts that were on her mind. Icy tried to hide the fact she suffered from Tourette's Syndrome but it always flared up when Icy felt strong emotions. The town Icy lived in did not understand her disease so she was treated like an outcast. For example, she was forced out of the public school system and had to educate herself in the school's supply room. When her tics and verbal outbursts did not cease in the supply room, Icy was subsequently institutionalized. With all these educational setbacks, Icy does obtain an exceptional home-schooled education with the help of Miss Emily and Mr. Wooten.Even though Icy withdraws from society for fear of being made fun of, Icy learns to accept her disease and, most importantly, accept that she is labeled. However, the biggest lesson Icy learns is that Tourette's Syndrome does not stop her from learning that she can love and be loved.
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