Autumn 1941 sees Jim Glass begin his senior year of high school in Aliceville, a tiny town in rural North Carolina. Though aware of war that has yet to involve the United States, and therefore him, he’s more focused on his love life. Having recently broken up with Norma Harris, the prettiest girl in the school, because she’s a know-it-all and won’t kiss him, Jim falls hard for Chrissie Steppe, part Cherokee and wholly mature for her age, which Jim isn’t.

She’s also the girlfriend of Bucky, a boy who graduated the previous year and joined the Navy. Bucky’s father employs Chrissie’s family, which, in his case, also means he controls them. By all accounts, Bucky takes after his father, though with a little more polish. Jim knows him as a former baseball teammate, selfish on the diamond, and rumor has it Bucky assumes Chrissie to be his property; her feelings don’t matter.

The Blue Star is a sequel to the delightful, warm-hearted Jim the Boy, which depicts the protagonist at age ten, trying to understand the father who died the week before he was born. The boy’s three unmarried uncles do their best to teach him life lessons and spring him, when they can, from the shackles of his overprotective widowed mother.

In The Blue Star, they’re much the same, not taking themselves too seriously and attempting to pass that attitude onto Jim, with mixed success. Love is one thing a mentor can talk about all he likes; it’s the boy himself who’s got to get a grip on that slippery, elusive dynamite. Mama doesn’t make it any easier. She was certain that her beloved only child would marry Norma — apparently, in these parts, teenage romance is an immediate prelude to marriage — and can’t stop meddling to save her life.

As he did in Jim the Boy, Earley sets his scenes and emotional challenges in effortless, evocative prose.

Jim worries about Bucky and his nasty, irascible father, but makes his pitch to Chrissie anyway. He has the sense to ask questions rather than blather about himself or preen, but he often blunders. He doesn’t always know which questions can hurt, or why, or how they sound to a girl who’s shunned for her race and her poverty.

Earley’s approach to race in both novels bears a subtle touch; social barriers are so obvious, they need no explanation. Consequently, Jim, from a comfortable white family that insists on outward respect for all (yet still obeys societal rules without question), has never encountered the pressures Chrissie faces daily, nor has he even imagined them.

To his credit, however, when someone points out that if he married Chrissie, his children would be one-quarter Cherokee, he retorts that it doesn’t matter — they’d be half Chrissie’s. And when Chrissie and Jim click in funny, poignant flights of fancy, he’s subsequently bewildered to find their connection appears to have indelible limits. He believes with all his heart that Chrissie cares for him; why isn’t that enough?

Early captures youthful love in all its pains and awkwardness. Reading it, I winced in recognition several times, and I imagine others would too. Earley doesn’t protect his hero — Jim can be pigheaded, jealous, and selfish — but he has a good heart. True to life, he learns most when he can see past his self-regard, which, among other instances, makes him realize there’s more to Norma than he knew.

Bucky’s posting to Hawaii, this place called Pearl Harbor, feels portentous. Even so, Earley redeems the clunky plot device, for the emotional effects move his characters in unexpected ways, further proof that reversals need not rest on a plot point. The inner journeys of these characters, major or minor, count for everything.

The Blue Star is a marvelously colorful yet understated exploration of love, duty, sex, social prejudice, and what it means for a boy to become a man. ( )

This is really pretty wonderful. I wonder if it would be worth digging up the "prequel". ( )

St. Barts 2020 #5 - Thoroughly enjoyed this sequel to Earley's 'Jim the Boy'.....as we share Jim Glass's journey from teen to adult....in the shadow of Pearl Harbor, and our entry in WWII. Small-town rural NC is the setting, and Jim,surrounded by his loving mother and 3 uncles, comes of age and learns of love, loss, friendship, honor and the unnerving launch into adulthood. Earley has a light, easy style and this uncomplicated yet poignant story just flies, yet it does so in a way that has spot-on insight to being a young adult male finding his way, and makes you feel glad you were along to accompany this journey of his. Thank you Tony Earley. ( )

The Blue Star isn't so much a sequel to Earley's first book, "Jim the Boy" as it is a separate book that focuses on the same character.
Jim Glass is a senior in high school in 1941. He develops a ferocious crush on Chrissie, a poor girl whose absent father was a Native American, scorning his previous girlfriend, Norma, who still loves him. Chrissie supposedly has a boyfriend who graduated the year before and is in the Navy, which complicates matters tremendously. Earley tells a good tale, but we never feel the intensity of falling in love that we should feel from Jim, and perhaps from Norma and Chrissie as well.
A coming of age story for adults or more mature young adults. ( )

I loved the first book of this planned trilogy(Jim the Boy), the second was a little slower, but so charming. The story is a throwback to a kinder, gentler, simpler time. I adore all the characters and cannot wait until the next/last book comes out! ( )