Get Your Copy Icy Sparks Planned By Gwyn Hyman Rubio Released Through Digital Paper

Sparks is the sad, funny and transcendent tale of a young girl growing up in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky during thes.
Gwyn Hyman Rubios beautifully written first novel revolves around Icy Sparks, an unforgettable heroine in the tradition of Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird or Will Treed in Cold Sassy Tree.
At the age of ten, Icy, a bright, curious child orphaned as a baby but raised by adoring grandparents, begins to have strange experiences.
Try as she might, her "secrets"verbal croaks, groans, and physical spasmskeep afflicting her, As an adult, she will find out she has Tourettes Syndrome, a rare neurological disorder, but for years her behavior is the source of mystery, confusion, and deep humiliation.


Narrated by a grown up Icy, the book chronicles a difficult, but ultimately hilarious and heartwarming journey, from her first spasms to her selfacceptance as a young woman.
Curious about life beyond the hills, talented, and energetic, Icy learns to cut through all barriersphysical, mental, and spiritualin order to find community and acceptance.
It could have been better, The build up of characters and plot was going well at the beginning, It started to decline and get all muddled up when Icy was at the institution, The characters, events, and relationships became so weak and confusing, There was no clear explanation as to what finally made them decide to send Icy home, no clear diagnosis or even a prognosis of what Icy had, and there was no resolution to Wilma's case.
The revelation of the Tourette Syndrome came at the epilogue, The last part became even worse, with the idea of religion too injected that it was like bringing all its readers into some fanatic devotion meeting of some sort.


I wonder what happened to the author! It could have been a good story, She had good characters to work on, her writing style was potential, with natural humor, . . but something seemed to have gone amiss along the way, Could she have been in a hurry to wrap up the book and turn it in to the publisher without giving it a second read Or did she get bored with Icy that she wanted to just end it and start a new writing project

Can anybody tell me how this book got Oprah Book Club label 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'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 hamhanded.
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,

Wonderful read! I picked this book up from my local library for,after briefly scanning the back cover, I thought that it would be interesting to read because my son was diagnosed with transient tic disorder similar to Tourrettes when he was about.
I know that this book is fiction, but as I was reading about Icy Sparks the main character and how she described what she felt prior to her "fits" and extreme anger, I wondered whether or not my son felt the same way before each tic episode.

Icy is a smart, feisty girl and a fantastic character, She's a young girl being raised by her grandparents in a small Appalachian mountain town in the's.
At the time, no one truly understood her disorder and she was taken out of school and placed in a facility for a period of time.
Even after she was released and returned home, she still remained isolated, with only her grandparents and Ms.
Emily an obese older woman who was also shunned by the people in town, The author tries to show that prejudice is found everywhere, even in a small mountain "hick" town.
As Icy grows and matures into a teenager, and then a young woman, she begins to realize that being different doesn't matter because God has created everyone in His image she also discovers that she is able to sing beautifully.
The ending is a positive one, where Icy goes off to college, becomes a therapist and uses her singing talents to help other children.

It's a wonderful book you cry with Icy, get angry with her and for her and just want to reach into the book and give her a big hug.
My son, who'snow, also got a great big hug! Just a small note, I truly believe that books come to you when you need them I received an answer to prayers and a message from the Lord! : I just love when that happens! It was good, but then it got super religious at the end.
Which is fine. Just not my wheelhouse. I enjoyed the rest of the book, though,.rounded tostars. Thought provoking but somewhat repetitive on the issues addressed, I would think this would be appropriate for a tween, First book I've ever read that character has Tourette syndrome so that was interesting, i read this in high school and used it as part of my research for a paper on tourette's.
"but anna," you may be thinking, "this book has a publication date of, and you areyears old.
that math doesn't compute. "

yeah, well, books exist before oprah gets her hands on them, TAKE THAT, OPRAH! WHO SCOOPED YOU NOW, HUH!! you think you're SOOOOOO cool with your show and your book club and your free iPods well GUESS WHO READ THIS BOOK before you

anyway, i remember liking it.
Never in my life have I wanted to burn a book, that is until I finished Icy Sparks.
Aside from the bullshit Christian propaganda at the end of the novel, the sentences were filled with awkward actions and adjectives.
There were actual moments I was reading the book, had to reread the passage and then shake my head likewhat For example:

p.
“Then I jumped up really high, stretched out my legs into an airborne spit, and descended, straight legged, with a thud my feet planted squarely on the floor.
”

p.“Icy Child! She repeated as I corkscrewed and uncoiled my body again and again”

p.
“Zooming straight up, twisting around in the air, he landed in a split, then shot upright again.
” Mind you, this was the pastor who was wearing a literal pinstripe suit

Also, can we talk about that weird scene with Maizy There was a lesson on empathy on p.
in which she describes to Icy how to understand the patients in the ward, she would attempt to mimic their literal actions to understand their pain.
For Gods sake Rose had cerebral palsy with contorted limbs and one kid ate lead, Being empathetic does not entail going to dangerous lengths to understand how one may be feeling, The whole relationship between an adult employee of a mental institute for children and a tenyearold child was completely unbelievable.
Icy was the epitome of good behavior and maturity, yet throughout the entire book, the reader must suffer through her bad mouthing and chastisement of nearly everyone that she knew.
Even her closest friend, one of the only people that Icy was ever able to seek solace in, Miss Emily was only described in grotesque words.
The word “fat”, “rolls”, “dough”, “whale” were thrown around carelessly, Of course, this was only good when Icy thought about it because when Patanni said the same thing, she would get defensive and tell him that it was not nice.
This scene did not conclude the words in her head, For a good Christian novel, this sure included a lot

of hatred, Then there was an awkward cat sex scene in which Icy onlyyears old states that she wants to be touched the same way by her boyfriend, she previously stated, “No maam! I dont want some ole boy sticking his wiggly up my vagina”.
p.For some reason she reads so many knowledgeable books and cant say the word penis,

I guess one of the only good things about the novel was the Walt Whitman reference.
Yes, he did believe in God, however he did believe in all religions equally and did not discriminate, which essentially is what Icy stated she herself was going to do towards the end of the novel.
Rubio tried to make Icy somewhat of a feminist, literary heroin, a survivor of Tourettes Syndrome, however, unfortunately, it was a flop and Icys remnants are merely a forgettable speck in the wind.
Perhaps if Rubio had attempted to focus more on educating the reader about the disorder and lead us into a realistic insight of Appalachia, would the book have been a worthy read.

.