Tag Archives: Monroeville Alabama

Dec16

JUST LOVED READING: Tru and Nelle: A Christmas Tale

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JUST LOVED READING: Tru and Nelle: A Christmas Tale

JUST LOVED READING:

Tru and Nelle: A Christmas Tale

by G. Neri 

Middle Grade/Fiction

 

Neri, G. Tru and Nelle: A Christmas Tale. New York: HMH Books for Young Readers, 2017.

Tru moved away from his mother’s cousins home in Monroeville, Alabama. He thought living in New York with his mother and step-father would be fun but after a stint in a military academy, Tru runs away.

He hops on a train with other hobos and heads back to Monroeville. He becomes friends again with Nelle who lives next door to his cousins. It’s the Christmas season but events happen which dampen everyone’s spirits: the house the cousins live in burns down and they move in with Tru’s aunt and uncle on their farm outside Monroeville.

Nelle’s father takes on a case of two black men accused of robbing a store and killing its owner. Nelle blames herself for arrest. Reminiscent of the case in To KIll A Mockingbird, this case doesn’t end happily, either.  The story does reaffirm the better side of the human spirit when Tru and his family and Nelle and her father celebrate Christmas with the accused in the local jail.

WHY I LOVED READING THIS BOOK:

In a surprising twist, Tru’s cousin, Sook, invites a member of the KKK to the celebration. Only his son, the local bully, shows up and demonstrates how beautifully he plays piano.  It doesn’t turn everyone into good friends but the incident highlights how complex race relations were during the Jim Crow era in the South.

Tru and Nelle: A Christmas Tale is the continuing narrative of the friendship between Truman Capote and Harper Lee which continued into adulthood (until Truman Capote became jealous of Harper Lee’s literary success). The first book in the series, Tru and Nelle, recounts their earlier childhood adventures.

Xmas tree

Xmas tree

Monroeville, Alabama was founded in 1815 on lands ceded by local Native Americans. It was later formally incorporated in 1899 and named after President James Monroe. Monroeville is the seat of  Monroe County, Alabama. In 1997, the Alabama legislature designated Monroeville as the “Literary Capital of Alabama.”

https://www.monroevilleal.gov./

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/whats-changed-what-hasnt-in-town-inspired-to-kill-a-mockingbird-180955741

www,monroecountyal.com

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Feb4

JUST LOVED READING: A Christmas Memory

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JUST LOVED READING: A Christmas Memory

A Christmas Memory

by

Truman Capote

Middle Grade/Fiction

 

Capote, Truman. A Christmas Memory. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1956.

Seven-year old Buddy and his older cousin and best friend live with other cousins of his mother’s in Monroeville, Alabama. He also has a dog named Queenie.

The story begins one cold morning when the cousin declares that it is time to make fruitcakes for Christmas. They have spent a whole year saving their money to buy the ingredients which includes whisky made by a Native American named Haha Jones. They give the cakes to people they have met once or twice or not at all like Franklin Roosevelt, President of the United States.

The effort to make the cakes takes four days including distributing and mailing them.

When that task is completed, they take a walk far into the woods and cut down a pine tree and enough boughs to make several wreaths for the windows. The family is poor so Buddy and his cousin make the decorations for the tree.

Their next effort is to make the Christmas gifts for each other and the other relatives. Every year Buddy and his cousin make kites for each other and this year is no different even though they want their gift to be a surprise.

Christmas morning, they try to eat the flapjacks and other treats made for the holiday but they are too excited. They want to open their gifts.The usual gifts of clothes and hand-me downs disappoint Buddy but he loves his kite. Later, he, his cousin and Queenie go out to the pasture and fly their kites and eat oranges. Queenie buries the bone they bought for him for Christmas.

Ominously, this is the last Christmas the three will spend together.

WHY i LOVED READING THIS BOOK:

A Christmas Memory is based on Truman Capote’s childhood memories living with his mother’s relatives in Monroeville, Alabama during the Great Depression. Few people were immune from its effects and the repressive atmosphere of Jim Crow that pervaded the South. But this story is really about two outcasts who loved and supported each other during difficult times.

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Jan21

JUST LOVED READING: Tru and Nelle

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JUST LOVED READING: Tru and Nelle

Tru and Nelle

by G. Neri 

Middle Grade/Fiction

Neri, G. Tru and Nelle. New York: HMH Books for Young Readers, 2016.

Tru and Nelle introduces the reader to the Deep South at the beginning of the Great Depression. The Klu Klux Klan’s influence is at its’ height. Tru  is 7 and Nelle is 6. Tru is living with his mother’s cousins in Monroeville, Alabama, next door to Nelle’s family. Nelle’s father is an editor and a lawyer. She has two sisters and a brother; Tru is an only child largely unloved by his mother and often neglected by his father.

Monroeville is a small town surrounded by forests and farms. Even in prosperous times, there wouldn’t be much for children to do. (There was a movie theatre and a public whites-only swimming hole in the book.) Tru and Nelle play games like pirates and detectives especially detectives like Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. When they discover that someone robbed the local drug store, they put their amateur sleuthing skills to the test. Their attempts at solving the crime gets them into some serious trouble.

Why I Loved Reading This Book:Capote

Neri’s characters ring true to life as they play and interact with adults and other children. He used letters, books and other documents to allow the reader a glimpse into the personalities of Truman Capote and Harper Lee as children and recreates some of their real-life experiences. Many of the characters in To Kill a Mockingbird are also found in Tru and Nelle including Boo Radley ( a character based on an eccentric neighbor) and Atticus Finch (based on Harper Lee’s father).

Children of every generation play games of detective and pirates although nowadays children tend to play games on the computer, X-Box,  iphone, or other technological devices.

But children growing up in the Depression, regardless of class, had little to play with. The Depression hit everyone, some more than others. Tru and Nelle had their love of books, a handful of toys and their imaginations. When they made up their detective stories, they wrote them down (one would dictate and the other would type the stories on Mr. Lee’s Underwood typewriter). Tru especially, constantly wrote (and continued to write stories that he imagined long after he left Monroeville) and like Nelle, they went on to become two of the twentieth century’s greatest writers.

Do today’s children create stories out of their imaginations, act them out and write them down?  Can this book inspire them to do so? Perhaps. Or do technological devices get in the way of children’s imaginations?

Tru and Nelle is a fun book to read even for young readers who don’t know about Truman Capote and Harper Lee. Tru and Nelle get into a mess of trouble and children of all ages like stuff that.

Monroeville, Alabama was founded in 1815 on lands ceded by local Native Americans. It was later formally incorporated in 1899 and named after President James Monroe. Monroeville is the seat of  Monroe County, Alabama. In 1997, the Alabama legislature designated Monroeville as the “Literary Capital of Alabama.”

https://www.monroevilleal.gov./

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/whats-changed-what-hasnt-in-town-inspired-to-kill-a-mockingbird-180955741

www.monroecountyal.com

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