JIM THE BOY: Tony Earley

This is the prequel to The Blue Star, and follows ten year old Jim Glass for a year, as he experiences the usual pains of growing up, this time in a small town called Aliceville in North Carolina. Like The Blue Star, there is a bit of conflict between the townies and mountain boys, though Jim's best friend ends up being a mountain boy named Penn Carson. We see electricity come to the town, as the uncles get Jim up early to see the sky lit for the first time, on Christmas Eve. We see Jim's initial jealous toward Penn, though he overcomes his initial insecurity, though occasionally it rears it's ugly head, especially when he and Penn play ball, trying to impress the immortal Ty Cobb, who supposedly is sitting on a stalled train. Jim refuses to let Penn use his mitt, and dramatically, Penn collapses, a beginning stage of polio. Jim must sit in his house for months, for fear of his having polio, and the book ends, with his visiting Penn for the first time, with a crippled leg. The boys don't know how to speak with each other, each is emotionally upset, and when Penn falls asleep, because of the anxiety and their harsh words, Jim leaves his ball glove and baseball in Penn's sleeping arms. The book ends with his visit to his grandfather, a convict, a man hated by his Mom, for his personality. Jim is allowed to glimpse him, for the first time, through a screen door, as he lies dying in his mountain cabin. The uncles has taken him up to see both Penn and his grandfather, a major stage in his development. The book ends with his being overwhelmed by the immensity of life, as he sits up on the mountain top, looking down at what had been his world, Aliceville, until he came up the mountain, to face a friend who almost died, a grandfather who is dying, and the realization that his world will change, has changed, forever. A lovely book, true to the feelings of a young boy growing up.