Icy Sparks

By: Gwyn Hyman Rubio

Narrated by: Kate Miller

Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

Rural Kentucky in the 1950s is not an easy place to grow up, and it's especially hard for 10-year-old Icy Sparks, an orphan suffering from undiagnosed Tourette Syndrome, who lives with her grandparents. Icy's adolescence is marred by the humiliation of her illness. Its all-too-visible signs are the source of endless mystery and hilarity as everyone around her offers an opinion about what's troubling the girl. Eventually, Icy finds solace in the company of Miss Emily, an obese woman who knows what it's like to be an outcast in this tight-knit community. Narrated by now-grown Icy, this novel shimmers with warmth and humor as it recounts a young girl's painful and poignant journey into womanhood - and the many lives she touches and enriches along the way.

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©1998 Gwyn Hyman Rubio (P)2001 HighBridge Company

Critic reviews

• An Oprah Book Club Selection

"Vivid and unforgettable...brimming with love and hope." (The New York Times Book Review)
"Richly inspired." (Time Out New York)

Icy made me warm.

I really enjoyed this book. At first I almost gave up on it, but I'm glad I didn't. It made me laugh, cry, and sing. My eyes were opened to Tourette Syndrome and how diagnosed people suffer from the public's ignorance.

Icy Sparks

Superb narration, excellent descriptive scenes and truly Southern flavor

great story,,,but

The story was really good, but it is a shame the narrator didn't take the time to familiarize herself with the tunes to the simple hymns used. If she didn't know them, she should have just recited them, or skipped them altogether. For those of us who have heard and sung these songs, listening to her monotone, tuneless 'melodies' she used for them was like listening to fingernails raking over a chalk board. Thank goodness the good outweighed the bad about this book.

kind of annoying

Maybe this book would have been a better read than listen. I got very aggravated with the narrator singing all of the songs to the same melody, and there are alot of songs in this book. The author focused less on the main character's battling of Terett's Syndrome and more on everyone finding religeon. It bored me.

Superb

Living in Kentucky I can almost feel Icy's story more than just listen to it. It was so well written and excellently read. The story deserves 5 stars, but the narration only 3. Most of the songs used in this book are beloved hymns and she just made up tunes for them (or maybe made up one tune and used it over and over) and it truly took away from the feel of the scenes where the author used music to help impart the perfect atmosphere to tell her story. Her use of so many songs shows that they are integral to who Icy was. I hope the author does not listen to the narrator's rendition. I had to turn down the sound and sing like Icy would have done it.

Eh....

This was ok, I wasn't completely into it, but it was still good, it did keep me wondering what was going to happen. The narrator was very irritating, she could change her voice ok, but kept saying the 'I said', 'P.V. said'...after 5 times in a row it got irritating. I don't regret getting it, it was a good story, just narrator did it injustice.

Terrible Narration

I read this book years ago, and actually thought it was good. Hearing it this time around was awful.

I don't know where the narrator came up w this dialect. I don't know why she strained so hard to make the characters sound like they were shouting the whole time. In the story it states more than once that outside people immediately discredit them (the hill people) once they hear their hill accent. It seems like the narrator did too, because this corny over acting made the Audio book sound like an episode of Hee Haw.

I just listened to Mother of Pearl by Melinda Haynes, narrated by Nana Visitor.
In both books we have characters from the rural south who are poor and have limited educations. Characters do all kinds of odd things in both books, but in MOP the characters are treated with respect. We feel their humanity and their dignity.

I am very familiar with people from Appalachia. They are not all just a bunch of ignorant hair brained hillbillies!

The end of this book was admittedly rough. I don't think anyone could have read that part well.

Unfortunately, the delivery of this story created a cartoon - like caraciture of a group of real people struggling to cope with difficult issues. I am more than disappointed.

It was ok

This is the first Oprah’s book club selection that I didn’t love, didn’t even reply like.
Normally all her selections are great but this one was just ok.

a worthwhile read!

while being entertained by this authors gifted writing, readers will be taught to feel what it's like to be born different. icy Sparks is a memorable character.

Overall Good Story

Overall this is a good story. Narration wasn’t bad until the revival scenes towards the end. The narrator isn’t a singer and can’t follow the tune of the songs. It kind of takes away from the story.