Consider this: a gracious and wise lawyer raising a generally beloved son and tomboy daughter after the death of their mother. A cantankerous housekeeper who is presumably African-American rules the home. The daughter can read before she goes to school and gets in trouble from her teachers for showing off about it. The boy befriends a flamboyant kid. The girl befriends a poor boy at school and brings him home for dinner, earning a reprimand for her bad manners when she comments on the poor boy’s eating habits. Familiar, much? Does Lippman think no one has read To Kill A Mockingbird?? This could have been a decent book, but why so derivative? If there’s a point to it, I don’t get it. Happy to be educated.
