Subject: Jim the Boy
From: "Mike & Kathy Claywell" <mnclay@mercury.ll.net>
Date: Sun, November 11, 2001 1:04 pm


I liked the book Jim the Boy.  I admit at first when I got done reading it I did not care for the book, but once I really thought about it and had discussions in class, I changed my mind.  I think that this is a good book about growing up.  Throughout the book it had many lessons in it, like when he was flaunting his dollar and Uncle Al told him that nobody ever gets anything all by himself.  While Jim was growing up many things changed in his life, like when the town got electricity.  This made me think of all the advantages and new technology people older than me did not have.  I think at some point in your life you lose your innocence and this book shows how Jim lost his.  He thought how he was so small in such a big world.  I can relate to how Jim feels, when I look at the stars at night sometimes I think how small we are in such a big universe and what else is out there.  This book can easily be related  to in my life and probably yours and I think that it is one of the reasons I liked the book.

Subject: Jim the Boy
From: "Scott Fair" <scott999@hickorytech.net>
Date: Sun, November 11, 2001 7:00 pm

I didn't think that Jim the Boy was a badly written book without meaning, but I thought that it was boring and slow to develop.  Actually, I don't know if it ever really developed.  It kind of just stayed on the same plain from start to finish.  I think that it lacked a climax, and a visible major conflict that I could get excited about.  It was like watching paint dry, except I was reading about hoeing a field.  What's the difference?

 
    To me, there wasn't a major event that the book led up to.  I thought that every event in the book was as equally dull as every other.  Like for one thing, I don't understand how Jim not getting the good hoe is a life lesson.  I also didn't see very many signs of foreshadowing in the book.  For example, I had no idea that Jim was going to see his grandpa, it just kind of happened.  One day he and his uncles were just on their way up the mountain to see his grandpa, and when they got there it was even worse.  Jim just looked in the window of his grandpa's house, and you couldn't even tell if his grandpa knew he was there because the guy was pretty much blind.

 
    I did think that the book had meaning and a purpose.   At the same time I thought that it could have been brought about in a more exciting kind of way.  I think the book shows how Jim grows up and realizes that there is more to the world than just the small southern town he lives in, and that he begins to wonder about things outside Aliceville.  He loses his child hood innocence, and he learns of things like jealousy and becoming a young man.  Jim is trying to figure out the complexities of life at the age of 11, and I believe that the major conflict in the book takes place inside of Jim.  He has to deal with the death of his father, and then he must watch his best friend contract polio.  There is nothing he can do to help either of them, and he is angry at the world because of this.  He has to start to deal with the feelings of jealousy inside him, and the malice he feels as he begins to discover the real world.

    I would not say that I really hated the book, but I would have to say that it did not excite me.  It was a very simple and slow moving book, but at the same time it had subtle complexities.  I would like to close by saying that the book bored me and that I had a hard time getting into it, but after stepping back and looking at it, I would have to say that the book was deeper and more meaningful than I first thought.

Eric Fair
Hour 3
Mr. Leer
Grade 10

Subject: Jim the Boy
From: "Jenna Ebeling" <jenna_mae04@hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, November 11, 2001 8:53 pm

Thrilling, suspenseful, exhilarating...all things that make a book good.

   "Jim the Boy," was a novel that I wouldn't consider to be complete.  The
story lacked an ever-changing and exciting plot, something that should be
considered important when reading a novel.  The book would've been more
impressive if it had some more exciting anecdotes and impelled you to want
to keep reading after the last page.

   In this shockingly monotonous novel, each illustrative story within the
book seemed to be the same without any meaning.  Putting some suspense to
the book would make it all the better.

    When I got to the last page of the novel it felt as if the book wasn't
complete because I didn't get a meaning from it.  With more thought and
writing comprehension the book would be dramatically improved.

    I found the novel to be very uninteresting, and it didn't catch my
attention how I would expect a "good" novel to. Ultimately, this book would
be more meaningful to someone who could better comprehend Earley's outlook
on the Great Depression.

By,
Jenna Ebeling

Subject: Book Review
From: "Valerie Marchwick" <vblonde182@hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, November 11, 2001 10:04 pm

I think that Jim the Boy was a great book and I recommend it to anyone, in fact I'd recommend it to a whole town! I think it was a fun book to read, with Big Day and the new school. It even had a little action with the incident with King at New Carpenter and also Penn and Jim's run in with the Ty Cobb. But I think it was sad when Penn got polio, that was sad, but it was a very nice thing of Jim to do to give Penn his glove and ball. overall it was a fun and easy book to read and I'd recommend it to anyone who is look for a book to pass the time.

Beau Marchwick
Mr. J Leer's English 10 class

Subject: Jim the Boy
From: "Jayne Beyer" <jbeyer33@home.com>
Date: Mon, November 12, 2001 7:30 am

In my eyes, Jim the Boy wasn't a very great book.  I couldn't really connect with the events that happened in the book. 
   
Even though I do not think it was a very good book, I thought it was well written in the way that Tony Earley explained the characters and what was going on throughout the story. 

The thing that I do not understand is how all of a sudden Penn and Jim are playing baseball and then Penn gets polio.  Out of nowhere the book comes out with this.  It caught me by surprise.  In books I like things to be leading, not just out of nowhere.

The only part in the book I think that I liked is where they think that Ty Cobb is on the train and Penn wants the glove because Ty Cobb is watching.  I can relate to that, because in real life it is exactly like that.  When I am at open gym for basketball and i see the varsity coach, I want the ball so I can try to impress him. 

After reading this book, I think that I will read it again to find the real meaning of this book and read it more carefully.

Zach Malchow

Subject: Jim the Boy
From: "Derek Straka" <dstraka@mnic.net>
Date: Mon, November 12, 2001 5:30 pm

I didn't like the novel Jim the Boy but that isn't important in my review.  I thought that the book was very well written for a book that can be read at so many different levels.  The author wrote Jim the Boy for many different ages and reading levels and that is why the book seems to be very simple.  I thought that the book may have seemed simple but there were many complex issues in the book.  One example was when Jim apologized to Penn for being selfish.  I thought he did this because he couldn't live with himself if he didn't apologize to Penn before he died.  The book seemed to move very slowly, only covering 1 year in 223 pages, but that was because in the 1930's life was very uneventful and maybe even dull.  There were some interesting parts of the book but overall I felt that the book lacked the attention-grabbing tales that would keep me turning the pages.  I thought that some of the stories could have been told in a more interesting way but the author may have chosen to take the dull route to intensify the monotony of everyday life in the 1930's.  All in all I thought that the book, as boring as I thought it was, well written and in its simplicity Jim the Boy was extremely complex.

Derek Straka
Pre-IB English 10
Period 3

Subject: Jim the Boy Review
From: Milt Taylor <taylor@ll.net>
Date: Mon, November 12, 2001 9:44 pm

I believe that Jim the Boy was a very well written novel even though
many of my class mates disagree with my opinion.  I think what makes it such
a great novel is how the book is simple yet it gives the reader important
lessons throughout the novel.

    One of those lessons that really has stayed with me is in Book Five:
Quiet Days when Penn has polio and Jim feels bad that he did not treat Penn
kinder by letting Penn use his baseball glove. Jim later apologizes to Penn
over guilt and gives Penn his baseball glove.  I believe that the author,
Tony Early, wanted the reader to see that you should not let jealousy and
selfishness take over but let kindness because you never know when you will
be sorry and it may almost be too late.

    Many fellow classmates thought Jim the Boy was just some boring book
about a farm kid growing up in a small town, but I thought there was more to
the book than that.  I thought it was about a boy without a father growing
up in a big world with uncertainties along the way.

    I would recommend everyone to read Jim the Boy, because it is such a
delightful book with many lessons throughout the whole novel.

Elizabeth Taylor

Subject: Jim the Boy Review
From: "the schmitt family" <tschmitt@ll.net>
Date: Tue, November 13, 2001 5:02 pm

I think that Jim the Boy was an reasonable book.  I think that it had a lot
of promise but it never followed through on them.  For example in the book
Jim didn't like Penn and then all of the sudden he was good friends with
him.  I think the author should have written more about the development of
their friendship.  Also when Jim went to go visit his grandfather we never
got to see if Jim would have seen him the same way everyone else did or if
Jim/Amos would change each others lives.  I think the author should have
written more about those and other storylines.  In my opinion the author
started many more plot lines then he followed up or finished.

Subject: Jim the Boy book review
From: "Emily" <melee@ll.net>
Date: Thu, November 15, 2001 4:13 pm

As a young boy, Jim Glass is brought up by his mother and three uncles.  As his father is dead, Jim looks to his three uncles as father figures.  The novel Jim the Boy is a novel filled with tragedy, romance, and adventure.  The combination of the three makes the novel easy, enjoyable, and fun to read, as well as meaningful to any reader.

    The first thing that makes the book great is tragedy.  The first tragedy is the fact that Jim will never know his father.  Before Jim was born, his father died, leaving his mother to look to her three brothers for support.  Jim meets his friend Penn at school just to realize soon after that Penn has polio.  The novel portrays both tragedies in such a way that it makes the reader feel as if he were in Jim's position.  The tragedies show how Jim is developing into a young, mature person, fitting with the other qualities present in this coming-of-age novel.  Also, the reader, when submerged into Jim's world, is able to connect with Jim, another significant quality found in this book and other classic novels.

    The second thing that makes the novel Jim the Boy great is romance.  Jim's mother is asked to marry Whitey Whiteside.  She refuses, because she still feels married to her first husband.  This part of the novel portrays romance, because the reader is able to understand her position.  Regardless of how some may feel, every person will be in love in his lifetime.  The romantic aspect of the novel adds to the fact that any reader can relate to the book in some way.

    The third and final thing that makes the novel a terrific book to read is adventure.  When Jim travels to town with Uncle Zeno, he and Penn meet a gang of local hoodlums looking for trouble.  The story seems to be making an abrupt turn from the gentle, quiet story it has so far been.  Eventually, though, a field hand of Uncle Al's begins to come down the alleyway with a knife.  The events that follow after, regardless of how utterly unbelievable, make the novel an exciting page-turner for some time.  The page-turning quality of a novel is one that seems to attract readers from any background.  The qualities of being adventurous add to the novel in that readers will be attracted to read it based on its page-turning qualities.

    In summary, the novel Jim the Boy is well written based on three criteria - tragedy, romance, and adventure.  I would personally recommend the novel to anyone interested in reading a book with qualities applicable to any reader's life.

Emily Pelton
Period 3
Mr. J. Leer
November 15, 2001

From: "Lynx" <darkangel@ll.net>
Date: Sun, November 18, 2001 10:13 pm

Now I'm not one to give a bad review to something written.  I'm an author myself and I absolutely hate hearing bad jive about my works but I do understand it is important for the growth of the author to hear everything; be it bad or good. 

Jim the Boy was amazingly written.  The book can reach almost any level of human understanding.  It's simplicity is it's beauty and it's disease.  I feel the book was a very well-written novel but because one uses simplicity with words doesn't mean that one must also be simple in plot.

I will come clean however that I did not finish the book.  I was about 3/4 finished when I just tossed it to the side.  Yes I know that a person cannot fully comprehend what they read unless they read it all but I simply did not have the patience to sit through this.  I guess I was repulsed by a very distinct hatred I have that the book just lit back up after I had calmed it.  I don't wish to say my hatred because not only would it make me so utterly biased but it would also offend some of my peers.  To some up how I feel, to an extent, I felt the book was too "traditional".  I have a hard time reading novels that bring in the rural life.  (Not that rural life is boring, not at all.  I just can't stand to read stories that revolve that way.  It doesn't light a spark in me to continue reading.)

Basically, I can't fully understand how the masses and call some books classics.  You can't just look at a book for how it is written and call it a classic because it is written well.  I think to be a classic a book has to also catch a great spark in a reader's heart.  I just don't know who these "masses" are that always give books like this great credit.  I'm not knocking those who like the book I'm just saying that how can you give it so much power.  For me it was just another required reading, nothing I'd choose to read on my own.  I guess I never really realized this but I differ an extreme amount from the masses.  I feel so alone.  Ha, oh well! 

On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the best, I'd give Jim the Boy a solid "5".  The book was written amazingly well.  It's simplicity was amazing and gorgeous but the plot couldn't carry me if I weighed half a pound.  (Which I OBVIOUSLY don't.  LOL!) 

Don't be mad with me.  This is just how I feel.

-Dominick Dailey
-Pre-IB English
-Hour 3
-Mr. Leer

From: "Patrick Pegg" <asifirede@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, November 19, 2001 10:25 pm

My views on "Jim the Boy" are not debatable on my side, I didn't like the
book.  There were some good reasons too, such as that there didn't seem to
be a visible conflict, and that the book seemed half over when it was
finished.

    I didn't see a normal conflict in the book, it seemed like there was not
even a self versus self conflict in this book, it kind of started, then
finished, and it didn't have much of an ending either.  The conflict was
very hard to see, at first it seemed like it would be about Jim and Penn,
but then they became friends.  Then I thought that there might be one with
Jim and Amos, but that didn't come about either, since Amos hardly saw Jim
ever.  The last conflict that I thought might arise would be one between Jim
and one of the Uncles, but that never happened either.  The book was void of
any action along with no conflict.  The only exciting part, in my opinion,
was the part in the book when Whitey asked Jim's mother to marry him, and
she said no.

    The second part of the book I didn't like is that there was absolutely
no ending.  I literally turned the page after the last page and expected
there to be about 50 pages left.  I was very disappointed in the ending,
especially since you didn't really get a feeling of closure when you read
the last sentence of the book.  Jim never got back down the mountain to meet
his mother again, he never got to talk to anyone in the town again about
what had happened, the book just stopped.

   The reasons I didn't like this book were clear, and I feel that they are
good reasons.  The book, while it wasn't as bad as some books I have read,
is not a book I would ever read again, or recommend to anyone.  This was a
class English project, as well as a community project, and that was a very
good idea.  This could cause a lot of arguments between people in the town,
and that is a good thing, this town needs more life, and that's what would
put more life in it, argument and debate.  It is a very fun thing when you
can discuss something with other people without being jumped on and hassled
about your opinion, not to mention entertaining for other people to watch
and listen.  That is my opinion on Jim the Boy, and if I had to give it a
score, it would receive a 4.5 on a scale of 1 being the worst and 10 being
the best.

Patrick Pegg
10th Grade English
J. Leer