Harper Lee

June 1, 2009
Gr 7-10-Madden pieces together her subject's life with depth and insight, relying on research trips to Alabama to interview Lee's colleagues and neighbors and to visit places that figure prominently in the writer's story. Through this research, the author paints a nuanced picture of Lee's childhood in Monroeville, AL, and how it informed the writing of "To Kill a Mockingbird". Lee's father is said to be the basis for the character of Atticus, Lee's childhood friend Truman Capote was the inspiration for Dill, and there was even a neighbor who resembled Boo Radley. The racial climate in the South and Lee's own observations of segregation and inequality played prominently in the novel and in the Academy Award-winning movie. With the author's new interviews and research, this biography is a valuable resource. There are a few black-and-white photographs and endnotes."Kristen Oravec, Flint Hill Middle School, Oakton, VA"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 15, 2009
Grades 7-12 *Starred Review* From the Up Close series, this informative biography spotlights writer Harper Lee, who grew up in Monroeville, Alabama, and studied law in college before deciding to become a writer. After working and writing in New York City for many years, she found a publisher for her first novel. Her life was transformed by the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), which quickly became a best-seller, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and the basis for an unusually successful movie adaptation. Though Lee appreciated the critical acclaim, she found the unrelenting demands for interviews, public appearances, and personal contact increasingly unwelcome and withdrew. Given the writers refusal to grant access to any biographer and her closest friends and relatives reluctance to discuss her, Madden has done a fine job of researching the novelists life and presenting it with respect for her point of view. The sensitive treatment of race relations during Lees youth and the section on three trials that may have inspired parts of her novel will interest students researching To Kill a Mockingbird. A lengthy acknowledgments section, source notes for the many quotes, and an extensive bibliography conclude this unusually readable biography of an elusive figure in American letters.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)