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PRODUCT
Mockingbird Summer: A Novel
Product Description:
Price:
$4.99
Detailed description:
A powerful and emotional coming-of-age novel set amid the turmoil and profound changes of the 1960s by the bestselling author of West with Giraffes.
In segregated High Cotton, Texas, in 1964, the racial divide is as clear as the railroad tracks running through town. It’s also where two girls are going to shake things up.
This is the last summer of thirteen-year-old Corky Corcoran’s childhood, and her family hires a Haitian housekeeper who brings her daughter, America, along with her. Corky is quick to befriend America and eager to share her favorite new “grown-up” novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. America’s take on it is different and profoundly personal. As their friendship grows, Corky finds out so much more about America’s life and her hidden skill: she can run as fast as Olympian Wilma Rudolph!
When Corky asks America to play with her girls’ softball team for the annual church rivals game, it’s a move that crosses the color line and sets off a firestorm. As tensions escalate, it fast becomes a season of big changes in High Cotton. For Corky, those changes will last a lifetime.
Set on the eve of massive cultural shifts, Mockingbird Summer explores the impact of great books, the burden of potential, and the power of friendship with humor, poignancy, and exhilarating hope.
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Product group:
Categories: Best Books of 2024 So Far
Product name:
Mockingbird Summer: A Novel
Price:
$4.99
Chris P –
I’m so grateful to have read this book. It’s one I’m sure I will re-read. The author incorporates inspiring and thoughtful life observations into a captivating plot. Corky is a 13-year-old girl in a small segregated town in Texas. Her family, church and love of baseball play a part in her growing awareness of herself as an individual, how bigotry affects all their/our lives, and how the choices we make affect the kind of life we live.
One of the all-around best and most well-written books I’ve read. I highly recommend this to everyone, young teenagers and above.
L Greechan –
I loved this book. Felt I could picture the small town of High Cotton and all its inhabitants. Loved that I saw it through the eyes of 13year old Corky who was growing up and finding her way in the early sixties in America. There was a message for all of us in this story.
Lee W –
Lovely writing, warm and evocative and never trite or wordy. Great characters and a terrific ending. I must read more by this author. Highly recommend.
S. Smith –
The summer of 1964 changes everything in segregated High Cotton, Texas. That includes Corky Corcoran, who at 13 isn’t aware things need to change. It all began with a book and her mother’s new housekeeper.
When the Haitian housekeeper comes to work, she brings her daughter, America, with her. Corky is happy to have a new friend and though she’s too naive to understand the nuances in the book (isn’t it good the group of men want to break Tom Robinson out of jail?), she eagerly shares her first “grown-up” novel with her. At sixteen, America’s take on To Kill a Mockingbird is very different and deeply personal, and it threatens their fledgling friendship. But Corky is persistent, and when she learns America can run as fast as “the fastest woman in the world,” Black athlete Wilma Rudolph, first woman to win three Olympic gold medals, she recruits her for the annual girls’ softball game between rival church teams. In doing so, Corky crosses the color line and sets off a firestorm, which ignites the town’s bully and eventually finds its way to her pharmacist father’s drugstore lunch counter.
Rutledge takes on the topic of book challenges when Corky’s mother upbraids the town librarian for giving her little girl a book containing the word “rape.” The librarian gently stands her ground and wins Corky the right to read it. The book also explores the danger of doing what’s right and the different danger of not doing it. It hits on broken dreams, the pressure of potential, the power of friendship, the impossibility of knowing what to do 100% of the time, the contrast (and effects) of good and bad parenting, and the impact a great book can have. Along with the pathos come some laugh-out-loud moments, particularly when the feuding preachers are involved. The setting, which is straight out of my childhood, is completely believable, as are the people, both good and bad. The bittersweet ending proves a broken dream often comes with an open door to find a dream just as good—maybe better.
Padel Mick –
Is this book really aimed at your average adult reader? It doesn’t seem to be the case as the plot is presented in the form of what I would say is a very bland and somewhat childish style although, if approached from a more adult-like angle, it could have been far, far better.
Another negative feature is the description of the softball game that took up too many pages and, let’s face, it,we all know how the match is going to end from page one!
In short, a soppy read and not to be recommended for anybody over 14 (or perhaps even 12…)
SCH –
I should start by saying I remember the Summer of 1964 so well. That will tell you something about my perspective (and my age!). Lynda Rutledge’s telling is a gift, bringing back so many memories and doing so in fine, full, beguiling prose. The setting is familiar. The characters are carefully drawn and so likable—at least the ones who are supposed to be likable. This novel may not have all the answers, but it is a wonderful way to get to know some of the tales of the early days of the civil rights movement told from the perspective of the inhabitants of “High Cotton,” Texas. Corky is an irrepressible 13 year old teenager from the white side of the tracks and America is the swift, athletic older girl from the “southside.” They play on a church baseball team amid the erupting emotions that dominated the Deep South in the late 60s. Fun. Touching. And for some lucky readers, perhaps enlightening.
Kindle Customer –
While some of the history that’s spoken of may have been heard in some fashion, the story itself is unique. This is literature as an art, expertly crafted. Characters to relate, sympathize with and detest, and everything in between! There are moments of laughter and joy, heartache and shock. The story unfolds such that it’s not predictable or like any book I’ve read! The author has delivered a masterful story to capture book lovers everywhere! ❤️👍👍👍
Satisfied customer. –
I really enjoyed this book. The characters were captivating, the story so real it was like reading a biography. The scenes so descriptive it was easy to imagine what was being described. I loved the dog, Roy Rogers, who was a character all his own. I couldn’t put this story down, reading late into the night.
pat’spix –
If you haven’t lived through 1964, this book will give you an historical view of that year and era. Through the story of two girls, one Black, one white, living in small town Texas, have a life altering experience in the summer of 1964. Corky, a thirteen year old white girl, and America, a Haitian sixteen year old who is Black are brought together by Corky’s mother, who hires America’s mother as a housekeeper. In all her thirteen year old innocence, Corky loans America a copy of To Kill A Mockingbird. Through this book, the racial segregation in Texas and girl’s sports, Corky is responsible for opening the door to integration in girl’s sports that summer in Cotton, Texas. This caused a big shake up of all who held dear and fiercely to Jim Crow laws that fateful summer.
I’ll stop here. I hope this opening will whet your appetite for a book that is a thought provoking page turner. It made me reflect on my own notions as a white girl growing up in segregated America. Rutledge, who wrote the wonderful West With Giraffes, again brings a story of believable characters and historical significance to all of us. Read it. You won’t be disappointed.