G. Neri

The friendship of Nelle Harper Lee and Truman Capote, inspiration for Scout and Dill in Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, is fictionalized in “a flavorful bowl of southern homestyle yarns.”

A girl dressed like a boy and a boy dressed like Little Lord Fauntleroy meet and become fast friends in Monroeville, Alabama, “sometime in the Great Depression.” They contrive adventures to spice up life in Monroeville, and their stories add up to a fine re-creation of small-town Southern life. Young readers will enjoy Nelle and Tru’s treehouse, adventure at the courthouse, their brush with the Ku Klux Klan, Nelle’s father, Amasa Coleman Lee, staring down the Grand Dragon, and reclusive spooky neighbor Sonny Boular firing their imaginations. Older readers, including all of the teachers of the classic novel, will see in these childhood adventures the makings of To Kill a Mockingbird, and the author’s note adds helpful information and mentions Go Set a Watchman without getting into the intricate relationship of that novel to its famous offspring. Since Nelle and Tru loved writing stories, Neri even includes “reimagined” short stories from Nelle’s and Tru’s lives. The charming and elegantly written novel doesn’t shy away from issues of mental illness, child abandonment, and racism, but they are woven neatly into the fabric of the characters’ lives in the tiny Southern town.

An engaging portrait of two children’s world before they became famous. (Historical fiction. 10-12)

-Kirkus Review… (more)

Definitely meant for a young audience, this sweet story is the slightly fictionalized friendship between Truman Capote and Harper Lee. I’ve been to their hometown and seen the rock wall between the plots where they used to live. This would be a great introduction for people who know less about famous authors. It’s a bit disjointed, but I love all the real facts that are worked into the story.

“One thing I learned on the river is that if you don’t act scared, you can talk to anyone.”… (more)

Christo are Jeanne-Claude were fascinating people and all of their family members are also interesting people. No matter what you think of their art (I knew mostly about The Gates and Running Fence and not about many of the others) I think most readers will be glad to get to know them. I enjoyed reading about them and learning about them and their philosophy of art. I admire their philosophy of life and their philosophy of art. This book is an interesting and informative introduction to their unconventional lives and to their unorthodox art. It’s excellent. I’m glad that I read it. I would have preferred photos of their art and not illustrations of it. 3-1/2 stars… (more)