Rating: 
Summary: Its simple- let the book read itself
Review: Jim the Boy is simple. Throw away your daily complexities and simply read about a boy discovering the indiscriminate size of a baseball in his uncle's enormous hand. The world was indeed large, and we boys were indeed small. I guess I had simply forgot to remember.
Rating: 
Summary: If Life Could Be This Sweet!!!
Review: When I first starting reading this book, I thought the life of these characters was just too wonderful. How can anyone's life be this plain and perfect. But that's the attraction and what makes this story seem like a sweet story from the distant past when things were so much more calmer and families really stayed together. If we could only all show so much innocense and love for each other today."Jim the Boy" tells the story of a young boy named Jim, coming of age, in a very remote and peaceful North Carolina town. It's 1934 and during the depression. Jim's father has been dead 10 years now, and his 3 wonderful uncles are now his mentors, who deeply care for Jim and their sister Cissy. The story from this point on tells of Jim's everyday adventures, and feelings while growing up. Tony Earley's beautiful descriptions of this time period, small town life, and everyday surroundings are indeed poetic. It's like a breath of fresh air in the countryside, and I mean rural countryside. It's nice to settle back, relax, and fantazise about an earlier peaceful time when people lived so differently than we do now. A truly wonderful book.
Rating: 
Summary: Adults should read children's books
Review: I am a mother of a 12 year old boy and I read to him at bedtime. I love reading his age-appropriate comming of age books because they're free of the depraved activites, drugs and violence that saturate so much current adult fiction. This book seemed like it would be good for both of us but it wasn't good for either. Although it doesn't have the themes I find objectionable for young readers, it doesn't have any meat, either. The books my son and I have read together that have been marketed as 'young reader' books are much richer than this book, maybe because they consciously try to send a message or teach a life lesson. "Holes" by Louis Sachar and "Bud, not Buddy" are two recently read books that come to mind. Early had a few opportunities to turn events into substantial literary material but passed on them. This resulted in book that is little more than a string of unbelievable annecdotes. I recomend that adult readers try some of the Newbury Award-winning 'young readers' literature if they want well-written, clean, interesting fiction. By the same token, I would receommed renting 1940's and 50's vdieos of movies rather than the current re-makes which muddy the plots with unnecessary sex and violence.
Rating:
Summary: Elegant
Review: Jim the Boy is a breath of sweet air in this age of sour malcontent. How refreshing to read of a boy's coming of age at the center of loving extended family. Deceptively simple, shamelessly tender, it is, like most elegant things, an unadorned masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: A Small Gem
Review: Tony Earley has written a small gem of a novel. Jim the Boy is a coming-of-age story -- a year in the life of a young boy living in Depression-era rural North Carolina. He is being lovingly but firmly raised by his widowed mother and his three bachelor uncles. This book is remarkable in many ways, among them for what it does NOT have: abuse, dysfunction, and angst are totally missing from this book. Earley, a professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, has been published in several magazines and is also the author of a book of stories, "Here We are in Paradise". Although the story is told in the voice of a child, it is never cute, just straightforward, honest, and plain. There are no convoluted sentences, no literary "tricks". Instead, the author has written a universal story, a children's book for adults that tells a complex story in simple language and style. Jim Glass is having his tenth birthday as the book opens. He lives in the small town of Aliceville with his mother, and nearby live his three unmarried uncles whom Jim considers to be his three fathers, his young father having dropped dead in a field the week before Jim was born. These five individuals are a contented family unit, close and committed to each other, with the uncles sharing the paternal responsibilities. The adults do a fine job of guiding Jim and giving him worldly experience in the small doses that he is able to handle. Jim knows that he is a fortunate young man who lives a fairly carefree life, and he never dwells on what could have been. Jim's tenth year is a year of firsts: his first trip to the ocean, his first best friend, his first baseball glove, his first encounter with a bully, and his mother's first suitor. He also has to deal with the anxiety of starting at a new school and the threat of polio. Looming just over the horizon, up on a nearby mountain, is Jim's moonshiner grandfather who will have nothing to do with him-- he became estranged from Jim's father when he left the mountain to marry Jim's mother. Several parts of this book will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned: the letter that opens the book, the description of the trip to the ocean, and the story of how the town was named, among others. This will not be the last that we hear about Jim Glass. Earley has said "I'm a long way from finished with Jim and the uncles and Mama. They've already told me that."
Rating:
Summary: Lyrical writing, engaging characters
Review: An involving story of a boy growing up in rural America. Jim is not perfect, and sometimes does the wrong thing, but he tries to make up for it, and has his memorable uncles to help guide him to adulthood. Parents are likely to appreciate this book even more than children, although it would be enjoyable (and appropriate) reading for twelve years old and up.
Rating:
Summary: I liked it; I guess some others didn't...
Review: "Jim the Boy" is not the deepest or the most technically well-written novel I have ever read. But I still found it hard to put down. I enjoyed it. A lot of other reviewers have commented that it is "only suitable for children" (I suppose because it has no... violence, or 4-letter words?) Actually, I am not sure children would understand Jim's feelings at the end of the novel - I think they are something you have to have passed out of childhood to understand. I have to admit I welcomed a book where I knew no graphic... scenes would "sneak up" on me.... Life is more than that! "Jim the Boy" is very simply and sparely written. The style is almost flat. But I think that is suitable for the subject matter - the story of the life of a boy, a boy for whom seeing the ocean is a big thing, a boy who has never really traveled out of his small town. The sketchiness of the story and the characters in a way work for it. In a way, it is like memories: do you remember every dinner you ate as a child? Every school day? No, and neither does this novel. And the book points out something really very important: our lives, after all, are defined by the apparently-small moments. Eating a piece of apple. Throwing a ball and hitting someone. Climbing a tree. We may think we are better or more sophisticated than Jim, but ultimately, we are not.
Rating:
Summary: Let's face it - I hated it!
Review: This book was recommended to me by a co-worker. I often love to read the recommendations of others, but after this experience I will be more cautious! This book was quite simply one of the more boring books I've ever read. Its simple-minded prose irritated me to the point of distraction. I was grateful for the distraction though, because the prose itself was mind numbing. The chapters could just as well have been titled: "Jim almost meets Ty Cobb!" "Jim Climbs A Tree!" "Jim Gets A Baseball Bat!" and the titles would sum up every piece of action contained. The characters were lifeless and virtually indistinguishable from each other.
Rating:
Summary: A boy's world
Review: Okay, I admit that nostalgia plays a big role in my enjoyment of this book. The small town innocence is evocative of my own experience growing up, although not in North Carolina. I was lucky enough to have my dad until just recently but I also had three uncles who played similar roles to Jim's uncles. And, there were other parallels too. But, primarily, the craft of storytelling is immediately obvious here and is what made this novel most fulfilling. Development of character, smooth plotting and careful choice of words are evident. Certainly not least, the author likes his characters. Don't let the simplicity of the narrative lead you to think this story is simplistic. Jim experiences some major life lessons along the way and manages to capture just enough from each episode to help him along. We should all be so lucky.
Rating:
Summary: Simple, lyrical, beautiful
Review: This is a book about a boy growing up on a farm, and near a small town, under difficult circumstances, but with a lot of love surrounding him. Jim is a real boy, not perfect, and sometimes does the wrong thing, but he has his uncles there to help guide him toward adulthood. This is not at all a book just for children; in fact, parents may appreciate it most of all.
| 
