Shine: A Short Story

Talented Jodi Picoult returns following Leaving Time landing on my Top Books of 2014 with SHINE, a small book but big in so many ways. Packed with lots of heart, dreams, and the brightest of shining stars. A special young girl you will fall in love with, as she learns at a young age the injustice of a cruel world of prejudice, race, and privilegeSet in 1979, readers get a look at Ruth Brook’s life at an early age, prior to moving into the highly anticipated SMALL GREAT THINGS, where we pick up with Ruth’s life as an adult. Both powerful moving, thought-provoking, and emotional “must reads.”Ruth is excited about her first day in the third grade at the private prestigious school, Dalton in Manhattan. She is smart and earned a scholarship. Unfortunately, she is the only black student in an all- white school. Surely her teachers and fellow students would see more than just her skin color.Sam Hallowell’s chauffeur would take Ruth (black) and Christina (white) in a shiny black car through Central Park to the Upper East side to school. At the end of the school day, she would return and play with Christina in her room, or do her homework in the kitchen until her mama finished working. Ruth and her mom would then take the bus to Harlem, back to their own place, where Granny and Rachel would be waiting. Rachel, her sister goes to a public school in Harlem.Ms. Mina is her mama’s employer and Christina's mom. Ruth's mama is a housekeeper for the wealthy white family. They were a good family and helped her attain a full scholarship, but she had done the work, taken a test and done well. She was grateful for this incredible opportunity and wanted to make her mama proud. She wanted her to have a good education, so she could make something of herself.Christina and Ruth had been friends for a long time; however, this was something new. There would be no one who looked like her. How would Christina treat her around her friends? Soon Ruth feels uncomfortable when the class has an assignment of drawing their family. Would her mama be on Christina’s drawing and Ruth’s? Could she and Christian possibly be more alike than different?Ruth was a good student, the best reader in the class and loved astronomy. She was a good listener, a willing friend. They were studying about stars. The reason stars look so small in the night sky is because they’re so far away from us."Her teacher had said that when we look at a star, we’re looking backward in time. We’re seeing a moment that happened millions of years ago."What if in the future they had a piece of the moment Ruth was living right now? It made her feel like yesterday and tomorrow weren’t all that far away from each other. What if there was a bigger world than her world- bigger than the boundaries of her imagination. Soon she finds others look at her different. Some do not like her color. They are mean and mistreat her. All her hopes and dreams are soon shattered. Ruth happened to be on the outskirts of the universe.“That was all it took. That chink in the foundation, that work of a question—for Ruth to peek behind the fancy wrapping of the story she’d created in her own mind. The justification, the wishful thinking—it swept away by the broom of doubt, like so much smoke. “Ruth felt as though her life was like Cinderella, turning back into her rags with her pumpkin. She learns early on (firsthand) she is in the middle of two universes. She does not want to be in Harlem as she does not fit in, as a light milky cream color and wants a better education. Nor does she fit in a white world at Dalton. Ruth is smart and wants to learn, unlike her sister, Rachel. She is even a much lighter color than her sister.She must learn to navigate between the two worlds and hope like the stars, no matter where you stand you will be under the same light. She wants to be "seen" beneath her color.What a great book and a great intro! I had the opportunity of receiving an advance reading copy of Coming Oct 11 SMALL GREAT THINGS (Top Books of 2016), which I read prior to the release of SHINE. I absolutely fell in love with Ruth as an adult and sympathized with all the challenges she had to overcome. It further enhanced my overall experience, when then getting to return to Ruth’s childhood to learn of her journey from the start. From the eyes of a child.Picoult is such a dynamic author (have read all her books). She always does a fabulous job in packaging her books, offering insights into childhood and adulthood. Two different views. Highly recommend reading both (in any order you choose). They will "change" the way you think. Soul-Searching.

I enjoyed this short story - it was great for a short flight and commuting to work with the audiobook version! It was fun to hear the story unravel about Ruth and how she would adjust to her new school

Readers who got to know sisters Ruth and Rachel and their mother from "Small Things Great" will get to know them as a third and fifth grader respectively in "Shine." Set in 1979, readers send Ruth off to the exclusive Dalton School. Bright and motivated, Ruth earned a scholarship. Rachel, her opposite number remains in an inner city neighborhood school in Harlem.Ruth has to try to cope with being the only black student at Dalton. Her mother's employer's chauffer would drive Ruth and another child named Christina to Dalton. Christina, also 8 is Ruth's mother's employer's daughter. The girls are taken by limousine to Dalton and would resume their friendship in Christina's room after school. Ruth would spend the remainder of the afternoon at Christina's apartment until her mother's shift ended at which point the two would take the bus back to Harlem.Ruth's maternal grandmother is an important figure in the household. She and Ruth have intelligent conversations about the reality of racism and the history of racism in their own family as well as the more global social disease of bigotry. Ruth has doubts about Christina as Christina appears to shun her during school hours and some of the other girls make catty racist comments. One such young bigot, Maia, makes a comment that is so far over the line that Ruth hits her. Naturally Ruth is sent to the principal's office. The principal is not even remotely interested in hearing Ruth's side, but luckily her mother does and her grandmother provides her with added insight.Ruth, unlike her sister shot for the stars. Fortunately their teacher taught a unit on astronomy. She takes Ruth under her wing and encourages her through an astral themed class project to continue to shoot for the stars.The stars and their distance could be interpreted as a metaphor for the social and racial distance Ruth experiences with some of her peers. The song "Catch a Falling Star & Put it in Your Pocket" could well underscore this book.

Light on pages, but packed with emotion and a little girl’s heart-wrenching reality, this short story sets the stage for the stellar novel Small Great Things.Smart and curious, Ruth is an eight-year-old girl that doesn’t really fit in. No matter how hard she tries, she’s different. A scholarship kid from Harlem, she’s the only black girl in a sea of white faces at a prestigious school, and it’s tough. The behavior of her new classmates, the teacher, her supposed “friend” and even her own family makes her question everything she held true. It’s a harsh reality, that no matter how hard she tries to shine, she might not ever been seen as an equal. I had to admire her perseverance and the way she held her head high, despite the way some people treated her.I may be incredibly naive, but the entire time I was reading, I just kept asking myself - are kids really this mean? Granted it’s been quite some time since I was in third grade and I don’t have any kids, but still. Are kids this young really spewing such hatred? There’s no way they understand the ramifications of their hurtful comments or even fully grasp what they’re saying, so how exactly are they learning to behave this way? It's scary to think about.Having already read the majority of Small Great Things, as I write this review, I can say this novella is only a tiny taste of the issue at hand - racism. It’s a good way to prepare yourself for the full novel though, which is an extremely heavy read. Racism is a difficult topic period, but I think Jodi Picoult manages to deliver a thought-provoking and eye-opening story. And more importantly, she does so in a way that forces you to examine all sides of the issue.

The story engaged me right away. My only regret was that it wasn't longer. Picoult remains my favourite author.

Short but sweet. The ending took me by surprise and left me with a yearning to read more.

Beautiful story!

Great read.

Good read.