Believing that the tattered copy of To Kill a Mockingbird she carries around is her only connection to her dead mother, bookish Erin is angry when her newly engaged father gives her the woman's teenaged diary as a 16th-birthday present. Reading that her mom also wanted to be a writer and even wrote to Mockingbird author Harper Lee, Erin acts on her long-held wish to meet her literary idol. Set over the course of a few days in 1986, and featuring a strong sense of the American landscape, Erin travels the thousand-plus miles from St. Paul, Minn. to Monroeville, Ala. on a bus. Along the way, she is shepherded by two quirky guardians: Sedushia, a middle-aged exotic dancer, and Epps, a big, protective computer geek. With a first-person narrative that is eloquent and credible, and prose that is restrained and economical, Ellsworth makes Erin's unlikely coming-of-age trip convincing. Designed to look like an old journal, the story's searching-for-mother theme should make it especially appealing to older fans of Kate DiCamillo's Because of Winn Dixie (2000) and Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's Alice Books. An engaging road trip. (Fiction. 10-14)
The touching story of one girl's journey to find herself, In Search of Mockingbird is Loretta Ellsworth's heartfelt novel. It's 1986, and 15-year-old Erin is none too pleased by her widowed father's announcement that he's getting married. When she discovers her late mother's diary, she learns that she wanted to be a writer just like Erin does. So she runs away from home on a Greyhound bus, determined to track down Harper Lee-the author of both her and her mother's favorite book. What unfolds is a poignant quest of self-discovery and the making of a strong young woman.
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In Search of Mockingbird
The touching story of one girl's journey to find herself, In Search of Mockingbird is Loretta Ellsworth's heartfelt novel. It's 1986, and 15-year-old Erin is none too pleased by her widowed father's announcement that he's getting married. When she discovers her late mother's diary, she learns that she wanted to be a writer just like Erin does. So she runs away from home on a Greyhound bus, determined to track down Harper Lee-the author of both her and her mother's favorite book. What unfolds is a poignant quest of self-discovery and the making of a strong young woman.
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Editorial Reviews
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940170910106 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Recorded Books, LLC |
| Publication date: | 10/03/2008 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
| Age Range: | 8 - 11 Years |
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