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Loading... Icy Sparks (1998)by Gwyn Hyman Rubio
 janiereader | Sep 14, 2012 |  The characters in this book were fantastic, and I loved Icy. I wasn't crazy about the ending, but a good read overall. Intriguing and interesting. (  ) bribre01 | Jun 9, 2012 | I really enjoyed most of this book, but the last couple of chapters went downhill quickly. I did not like how everything turned to religion in the end. Icy was a very likeable character and I wanted to know more about what was done for her diagnosis of Tourette's Syndrome, if anything. (  ) ladybug74 | May 8, 2011 | I thought this would be a good book. It's about a young girl growing up in 1950s Kentucky with undiagnosed Tourette Syndrome, which seemed like an interesting story. But it was largely uneventful and I found the characters completely two dimensional. Some books I hate, but I don't have strong enough feelings about this book to hate it. It just wasn't worth reading. (  ) RachelPenso | Dec 16, 2010 | A coming of age story about a young girl growing up in 50's Appalachia. The main character, Icy, struggles with "fits" of jerks, croaks, and eye pops which drives her out of school, into seclusion, and eventually into a hospital for children with special needs. Unfortunately Icy's tourette's syndrom goes undiagnosed until adulthood and she is forced to find ways to cope with her differences on her own and by clinging to her family. I really enjoyed this novel. I am a teacher who interacts with special needs students each day. I also grew up and live in Appalachia. I found a lot to relate to with this story and it's now a new favorite! ( ) jessicastatzer | Sep 11, 2010 | no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0142000205, Paperback)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 (retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:48:19 -0500) At the age of ten, an Appalachian girl develops croaks, jerks and spasms, which leads to her explusion from school. After treatment--she has Tourette's syndrome--she learns to control herself, attends college and there is a happy ending. |
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Wikipedia in English (1)
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What's especially interesting is that the story takes place in rural Kentucky in the 1950's and Icy has many of the peculiarities that those with the syndrome exhibit. (motor and vocal tics)Icy is an orphan, raised by her grandparents and she tries to hide the symptoms but is often teased by those around her (even a teacher) until she learns to accept herself. Interesting, touching and yet fun to read. (