Read Time:1 Minute, 58 Second
From the first time he saw beautiful, raven-haired Chrissie Steppe getting off the bus that brought her to school from her home on the mountain, Jim Glass knew that he was in love with her. It was a feeling that he’d never felt before—not even with Norma, the girl that everyone (especially Norma and his mother) expected him to marry.
But Jim soon finds that falling in love is complicated—especially since Chrissie belongs to Jim’s former baseball teammate, Bucky Bucklaw. Bucky has become a local hero since he left town to join the navy, and his family is keeping a close eye on his girl, Chrissie—which isn’t very hard, since she and her mother and her grandparents live on the Bucklaws’ land.
With the Second World War looming on the horizon, Jim and his friends make their way through their senior year of high school, unaware of how drastically all of their lives are about to change.
The follow-up to Earley’s bestseller, Jim the Boy, The Blue Star is the kind of book that you rarely find these days. It’s a simple yet thoughtful novel that reads like a well-loved classic. Its simplicity and sincerity will remind you of those books that you wrote reports about in school—the ones that you didn’t truly appreciate until you went back and read them again, as an adult.
The Blue Star tells a moving coming-of-age story that’s slow and smooth, moving along at the calm and relaxed pace of a thick Southern drawl. Jim is a lovably naïve young character—and as you get to know him, you’ll remember feeling the same fervent teenage determination that he feels. You’ll also understand the frustration he feels as he begins to discover that life isn’t as plain and simple as he always thought it was—and that the people around him aren’t always as they seem to be.
As the story comes to a close, The Blue Star leaves the future of its characters uncertain. It offers a bit of hope—but it’s also certain that things for Jim, the young man, will have to get worse before they can get better. I have a feeling, though, that the story will continue in Earley’s next novel.
Kristin Dreyer Kramer has been writing in some form or another (usually when she was supposed to be doing something else) since the ripe old age of ten—when she, her cousin, and their two Cabbage Patch Dolls formed the Poo Authors’ Club. After a short career in advertising, Kristin got sick of always saying nice things about stuff that didn’t deserve it—so now she spends her days criticizing things, and she’s much happier for it.
Since creating NightsAndWeekends.com in February of 2002, Kristin has spent her life surrounded by piles and piles of books and movies—so many that her office has become a kind of entertainment obstacle course.
As if her writing and editing responsibilities for N&W.com weren’t enough to keep her out of trouble, Kristin also hosts a number of weekly radio shows: Reel Discovery, Shelf Discovery, and On the Marquee. She’s also a proud member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association (CriticsChoice.com), the Central Ohio Film Critics Association (COFCA.org), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS.org), and the Women Film Critics Circle (WFCC.Wordpress.com).
Kristin lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her husband, Paul, and their daughter, Anna. She welcomes questions, comments, and fan mail at kdk@nightsandweekends.com.
Happy
0
0 %
Sad
0
0 %
Excited
0
0 %
Sleepy
0
0 %
Angry
0
0 %
Surprise
0
0 %
Kristin Dreyer Kramer has been writing in some form or another (usually when she was supposed to be doing something else) since the ripe old age of ten—when she, her cousin, and their two Cabbage Patch Dolls formed the Poo Authors’ Club. After a short career in advertising, Kristin got sick of always saying nice things about stuff that didn’t deserve it—so now she spends her days criticizing things, and she’s much happier for it.
Since creating NightsAndWeekends.com in February of 2002, Kristin has spent her life surrounded by piles and piles of books and movies—so many that her office has become a kind of entertainment obstacle course.
As if her writing and editing responsibilities for N&W.com weren’t enough to keep her out of trouble, Kristin also hosts a number of weekly radio shows: Reel Discovery, Shelf Discovery, and On the Marquee. She’s also a proud member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association (CriticsChoice.com), the Central Ohio Film Critics Association (COFCA.org), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS.org), and the Women Film Critics Circle (WFCC.Wordpress.com).
Kristin lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her husband, Paul, and their daughter, Anna. She welcomes questions, comments, and fan mail at kdk@nightsandweekends.com.
0
0
