This is an excellent book. It’s a Oprah’s Book Club pick and I can see why. It’s a well written book with a good story about a girl growing up in the mountains of Kentucky. Her biggest problem is learning to live with her disorder and to accept herself as she is. I would recommend this book to anyone. I would also recommend that other readers check out Oprah’s list of boo club books. I’ve read several books from her list and they are excellent.

i thought this book would be interesting: a little girl growing up with Tourette's in 1950s Kentucky. i was so wrong. this book does a horrible job of getting inside a child's mind and does little to show us how her doctors at the institution came to understand enough about it to finally send her home. then it gets all Jesus-freak at the end. i have no idea why this is in Oprah's book club. no sir, i didn't like it.

Onvan : Icy Sparks - Nevisande : Gwyn Hyman Rubio - ISBN : 142000205 - ISBN13 : 9780142000205 - Dar 320 Safhe - Saal e Chap : 1998

Icy Sparks is Anne of Green Gables with Tourette Syndrome. I loved the character, but wasn't super crazy about the story.

The book is divided into three parts. The first part was kind of painful because it shows her at 10 years old first beginning to manifest Tourette's, and becoming an outcast in her community--it's the 1950's in rural Kentucky and nobody had a clue about Tourette's. I really liked the second part, which induced me to keep reading the book (saying what it's about would be a spoiler), but the last part was a letdown.

I have to say I didn’t love this book but in saying that I finished it. The story that sang out to me is one of acceptance. Each of us need to both accept others but we also need to accept us for who and what we are.
The religion that so many were against in this book showed just that. When one is accepted in a community so many beautiful things can happen.
Would I recommend it? I think so.

Several times throughout this book I asked myself why I was still reading it, and after finishing it the only answer I have is "I was bored and kept hoping it would get better". It never really did. Don't get me wrong - if it was THAT horrible, I'm sure I would've given up - but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

The premise, that of a young girl growing up in Appalachia in the 50's with Tourette's syndrome, sounded interesting and promising, but the writing is...unskilled. The dialogue ranges between quaint and believable to "no one actually talks like that, ever". Gestures and body language are ALWAYS described in an awkward, baffling manner ('Miss Emily centered her hands on top of the table and pushed up' - what the hell is that illustrating?? No, she is not trying to lift the table in that scene, Miss Emily is just chatting).

I also found the middle portion of the book, where Icy is institutionalized, to be annoyingly ham-handed. Why are several of the child patients given animal characteristics? Is it to match Icy's ~frog~ theme, and why? If there's supposed to be some symbolism in the autistic boy that headbutts like a bull and the crazy kid who thinks he's a bird (NOT an actual disorder or remotely believable just stop it), it isn't readily apparent and doesn't go anywhere. Also, in a book that's about outcasts and respecting people's differences, I thought it was interesting that the nice aide at the institution was beautiful and the mean aide was ugly. Very progressive.

I think the final insult was finding that the climax of the book, and the solution to Icy's social problems, basically involved Icy FINDING JESUS PRAISE THE LORD and almost smacked of faith healing and just NO NO NO. So this entire book was a slow build meant to preach to the reader? Yeah, thanks.

Pass on this one.

Granted, I listened to it and the narrator was okay until the end when Icy, the main character, finds God and there is all kinds of singing. Well, the singing just about sent me over the edge. "Amazing Grace" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" in a bad hillbilly accented voice was almost more than I could handle. I found myself finishing the book out of anger: "Damnit--I've lasted this long. I have to finish it." So I slogged through and finished the damned thing.

Icy is the main character, growing up in 1950s Kentucky, with Tourettes. (sp?) Great premise. Not a great read because the story is fragmented. It jumps from her childhood to college in a way that lacks flow, and I felt that the illness was not developed as much as it should be. By the end, Icy is a pain in the ass (not that I wasn't as a teenager), and I had no interest in what happened to her.

As you can see from my reading, I would say that this is not a good use of your time--for the beach or anywhere. Sorry Oprah, I don't agree with this one!

Icy Sparks lives with her grandparents in rural Kentucky in the 1950s, she suffers bouts of uncontrollable grunting, croaking, cursing, and violent gesticulations. Despite gaining the attention of principal Wooten and the well-meaning staff at an asylum for kids, Icy's Tourette Syndrome goes undiagnosed for the duration of this entire book. Personally I didn't really find this colorful story funny or enjoyable.

Beautiful story of a girl with Torettes

With all of our current knowledge of Tourettes it is fun to see a family discover it and try to tame it. The writer has a comfortable flow of word and good character development.

This is really hard to review because I felt so many different things while reading. But, regardless of how much I disliked any part of the book, I couldn't wait to read more to find out what happened next.

It wants to be good - so, so badly - I wanted it to be good, so badly! But it’s just not. Lackluster prose and empty, even silly characters, relationships and dialogue. A cold, do-nothing arc (if one can even call it that) ending in a dull and unfulfilling finale.

Weird book. It took me a day to get used to the writing style and then I started focusing on the plot/writing which I was not impressed with. I don’t have Tourette’s so I can’t speak to how accurate the description. I felt like the author was trying to be too deep and mysterious for this book. She tried to get her point across through weird metaphors and other symbols in the book but they were too thought out for what a young preteen would be thinking. Very odd in my opinion. The ending of the story was awful and I feel like had no relation at all to the point of the book. I would not recommend this book.