Tru & Nelle

December 14, 2015
Tru is a newcomer in Monroeville, Ala., and his city ways and fey affectations don’t help the seven-year-old fit in. Nelle has lived in the small Southern town her whole life, but her tomboy tendencies make her a kind of outsider, too. Neighbors and fast friends, they look for a mystery to solve, and a break-in at the town pharmacy offers them their chance. Nelle and Tru are inspired by Harper Lee and Truman Capote; Neri (Hello, I’m Johnny Cash) evokes their friendship and fortitude with brio, but the constraints of real life and Lee’s prior fictionalization of it in To Kill a Mockingbird seem to limit his freedom to invent. Nelle’s father is wise and heroic, and Nelle and Tru are essentially free of racial prejudice; 50-plus years on, this, along with the portrayal of the Klan as equal parts buffoonish and scary, feels naïve, even considering the age group Neri is targeting. Still, readers already familiar with To Kill a Mockingbird should appreciate this fictional detour into the world of a young Harper Lee. Ages 7–10. Agent: Edward Necarsulmer IV, Dunow, Carlsen & Lerner Literary Agency.

Starred review from December 15, 2015
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)

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October 1, 2015

Gr 4-7-Middle grade readers-even those not yet familiar with the names Truman Capote or Harper Lee-will be delighted with this romp through 1930s Monroeville, AL. Neri has pulled real events from the lives of Tru and Nelle and has woven them into a fictional work that takes readers through the pair's first meeting, their efforts in solving a small-town mystery, and their face-to-face encounter with the Ku Klux Klan. Tru's parents leave him with distant cousins when he is seven years old. It is then that he meets a young Nelle, who lives next door. Both children have difficulty fitting in with their peers and become fast friends. They both have a keen sense of drama and a need to find adventure, even in their sleepy little town. They soon find themselves in one predicament after another, caught up in a local mystery that lands them in some real trouble. This story is heartwarming, funny, and beautifully crafted; readers will be sucked in from the very first chapter. VERDICT A charming addition to fiction collections, especially where readers enjoy historical fiction with a large dose of mystery, adventure, and heart.-Elizabeth Kahn, Patrick F. Taylor Science & Technology Academy, Jefferson, LA

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