The Blue Star

A North Carolina teen experiences his first love as the US enters World War II in this emotional sequel to Jim the Boy.

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year

“Irresistible. . . . I galloped through this novel and relished every page.” —New York Times Book Review

Seven years ago, readers everywhere fell in love with Jim Glass, the precocious ten-year-old at the heart of Tony Earley’s bestseller Jim the Boy. Now a teenager, Jim returns in another tender and wise story of young love on the eve of World War Two. Jim Glass has fallen in love—as only a teenage boy can—with his classmate Chrissie Steppe. Unfortunately, Chrissie is Bucky Bucklaw’s girlfriend, and Bucky has joined the Navy on the eve of war. Jim vows to win Chrissie’s heart in his absence, but the war makes high school less than a safe haven, and gives a young man’s emotions a grown man’s gravity . . .

With the uncanny insight into the well-intentioned heart that made Jim the Boy a favorite novel for thousands of readers, Tony Earley has fashioned another nuanced and unforgettable portrait of America in another time—making it again even realer than our own day. This is a timeless and moving story of discovery, loss and growing up, proving why Tony Earley’s writing “radiates with a largeness of heart” (Esquire).

“Tony Earley’s novels are the Shaker chairs of American literature.” —Christian Science Monitor

“Earley bewitches his readers with an idyll of boyhood so completely realized that we never want to leave it.” —Newsweek

“At the heart of The Blue Star is a good old-fashioned love story. . . . Earley writes with the same lyrical simplicity that he employed in Jim the Boy, calling to mind his literary idol Willa Cather.” —Boston Globe

“A very fine book, full of moments of humor and tenderness. . . . The Blue Star is, in more ways than one, wonderful reminder of how we used to live.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune