Anybody Shining

Starred review from June 2, 2014
Twelve-year-old Arie Mae Sparks is imaginative and full of energy—qualities that often translate to “awful strange” in her small mountain town in 1920s North Carolina. With the aim of cheering up her mother and making a much-needed friend, Arie Mae begins writing letters to a cousin she’s never met, the daughter of an estranged aunt. Her letters go unanswered, but in the meantime, Arie Mae meets a visiting boy named Tom. “Cousin Caroline, have you ever seen anyone who shined?” writes Arie Mae. “Well, this boy did. Even though he walked with a limp and was a little bit sideways, he was shining.” The two traipse through the woods, which are supposedly haunted by “haints,” but Tom’s heart condition could mean the loss of Arie Mae’s only friend. Arie Mae’s openheartedness and yearning for connection make for a deeply poignant story, one with a richly realized setting and cast. As Arie Mae begins to see her life in a new light, Dowell (The Second Life of Abigail Walker) examines the clash between city and country life and what true wealth really means. Ages 10–12.

February 1, 2015

Gr 5-7-All 12-year-old Arie Mae Sparks wants is one true friend. Life in the hill country of North Carolina in the 1920s is hard. Money is tight; education, food, and clothing are all limited; and folks are pretty isolated. She begins to reach out by writing letters to a cousin she's never met who lives far away in Baltimore. After her third letter goes unanswered, she's feeling pretty low, but soon after, she meets Tom, a boy who has come from the city with a group of people interested in studying mountain folk ways. While many of these summer visitors look down on Arie Mae and her kin, Tom becomes her friend. She'll do anything to keep his friendship, including finding him a bear and a ghost. Told through the letters she continues to write, this work is superbly narrated by Suzy Jackson, whose pacing, accent, and inflection are spot-on. VERDICT This is a spellbinding audio, one suitable for class listening when studying history or social studies as well as a genuinely enjoyable story.-John R. Clark, Hartland Public Library, ME

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