I Am Scout: The Biography of Harper Lee in ENGL 3390: Great Works for Middle Grades Spring 2012

Jan 30, 2012 Courtney Ballantine rated it it was ok

I Am Scout is a non-fiction work by Charles J. Shields. It chronicles the life of Harper Lee who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. The book offers many interesting looks into Lee’s life from her relationship with her parents and siblings to her struggles with school and fitting in to her undeniably tough, brash personality to her unlikely friendship with Truman Capote. The book gives glimpses into the connections between Lee’s childhood and home town knowledge to the characters and setting of her Pul I Am Scout is a non-fiction work by Charles J. Shields. It chronicles the life of Harper Lee who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. The book offers many interesting looks into Lee’s life from her relationship with her parents and siblings to her struggles with school and fitting in to her undeniably tough, brash personality to her unlikely friendship with Truman Capote. The book gives glimpses into the connections between Lee’s childhood and home town knowledge to the characters and setting of her Pulitzer Prize winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. Shield’s biography delves into Lee’s personal and professional life in a way that gives insight into who she was as a person, a friend, a daughter, and as a writer.

Personally, I found this book very difficult to read. I felt that Shields writing style was difficult to follow. His thoughts were often fragmented and scattered. I found his writing often hard to follow with random quotes or thoughts inserted into the middle of sentences and irrelevant information that was seemingly inserted as filler. I did find many of the facts surrounding Lee’s life to be interesting such as her close and often challenging friendship with Truman Capote. I also really enjoyed reading about the ways in which she marched to the beat of her own drum and her inability to bask in the limelight and allow herself to soak up the admiration of so many. There is no denying that Shields is extremely knowledgeable of Nelle Harper Lee’s life, but the flow and randomness of the biography was extremely off-putting.

I do feel that non-fiction is a genre that middle school students are not exposed to enough. Reading a biography or autobiography on an author prior to reading a work by that author sets up an invaluable historical context of a novel and can help students find more meaning and relevance in what they are reading. However, I do not feel that I Am Scout is a non-fiction work I would use in a middle school classroom. I do not feel that students will be able to follow along with Shield’s style. I think students will become disinterested and would be unlikely to finish this particular biography.
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Jan 30, 2012 Danielle Pitts rated it liked it

I Am Scout is a biography of Harper Lee’s life. I knew very little about (Nelle) Harper Lee before reading I Am Scout because I had never read her famous book, To Kill a Mockingbird (TKAM). With that being said, reading this biography was difficult for me. Charles Shields had done extensive research before he wrote I Am Scout, with quotes from family members, former teachers, and friends. He included stories about Nelle and details from a few court cases. While reading, I also learned about many I Am Scout is a biography of Harper Lee’s life. I knew very little about (Nelle) Harper Lee before reading I Am Scout because I had never read her famous book, To Kill a Mockingbird (TKAM). With that being said, reading this biography was difficult for me. Charles Shields had done extensive research before he wrote I Am Scout, with quotes from family members, former teachers, and friends. He included stories about Nelle and details from a few court cases. While reading, I also learned about many of her family and friends, including Truman Capote. The downside for me was that there were many quotes, character mentions, and quips from To Kill a Mockingbird. Most of the time, I did not know what Shields was referring to. Perhaps if I Am Scout was a strict biography of Harper Lee’s life without all the connections to To Kill a Mockingbird, the text would have been more comprehendible for me as the reader. Shields shows his passion for Lee’s novel but perhaps it is too overdone with so many TKAM references. I had to skip over quite a few paragraphs in the biography because the plot of TKAM was being given away. I did not want to read these spoilers before reading Lee’s novel.

I feel like a few key items were left out of this book and too much attention was focused on other aspects of the biography. For example, the entire first chapter has quotes from Truman. It is not until chapter two that we actually find out that it is Truman Capote, a childhood friend of Nelle’s. I was frustrated as a reader because I felt that I had missed a piece of information about Truman’s identity during the first chapter but indeed, I had not. There was an incredible amount of attention placed on the Clutter murders. While Nelle was an assistant researcher to Truman Capote, so that he could write his article (which later became In Cold Blood), I felt that committing an entire chapter to the murders and the quest to find the murderers was not necessary. Instead, I would enjoyed learning more about Nelle’s relationship with her mother and her other two siblings. There is much mention of Alice and A.C. Lee, but Nelle’s other siblings are out of the picture. Going more into detail about Nelle’s romantic life, or lack thereof, would have been interesting. What we find throughout most of this biography is that Nelle was a loner and did not enjoy the fame that her book brought to her.

Nonfiction works like biographies and memoirs are one of my most favorite topics of literature. Compared to others, while I Am Scout was well-researched, I felt disappointed. Perhaps this is strictly because I had not read TKAM prior. I have started reading TKAM and I must say that now, I can draw connections between the fiction and nonfiction characters of Nelle’s life. Reading I Am Scout after finishing TKAM would probably make for a good read.
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Jan 30, 2012 Tiffany rated it it was ok

I am Scout is non-fiction look into Harper Lee's life through the author Charles J. Shields. It offers colorful insight into Lee's life before her birth and throughout her life and offers the reader connections between Lee's life and the world that she creates in her prize winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird. The biography examines her life and how her experiences led her to be the famous writer that she became.

I had to make myself get through this book. I have never been a non-fiction reader, ...more

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Jan 30, 2012 Katie rated it did not like it

Shelves: biography-autobiography

I am Scout is a biographical text that describes Harper Lee's life. The elements of this book somewhat resemble that of a narrative. The story begins with Harper Lee's early childhood, progresses through her middle stages of life, then ends with her being in an elderly state. Major parts of this book consists of describing Lee's social patterns, interpreting acquaintances' influence on Lee's writing, and analyzing the creation of To Kill a Mockingbird. There were numerous chapters that pertained ...more

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Jan 30, 2012 Camila Gonzalez rated it it was ok

I found I am Scout to be somewhat interesting. I didn’t really know anything about Harper Lee before reading this book. It was interesting to read the experiences that inspired the author to write TKAM. Though TKAM is one of my least favorite books, I found Harper Lee’s life to fulfilling. It was interesting to read the process she had to go through in order to write her first novel. The book tells the journey of her life from being a child to her adulthood. Also, having read I am Scout I was ab ...more

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Jan 31, 2012 Cassandra Wright added it

I am Scout is a fascinating and well-written biography of Nelle Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird. The connection it shows between author and her work compliment each book and captured the interest and imagination. It is exciting to know that Scout lived, and refreshing to read about the success of one determined,non-conforming, clear-sighted, spunky young writer.

The book details events through Lee's life from early childhood to her years as an older woman at peace with herself, all th ...more

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Jan 29, 2012 Amanda Corley rated it liked it

This is a very informative book on Harper Lee's life. It gives information on when she was young to her writing "To Kill a Mockingbird" and life after the book took off and became one of the most popular books on the shelf. The book shows how Harper Lee stayed true to herself and didn't conform to what and who people thought she should be. She attended two seperate colleges and towards the end of the second college realized what her true calling was. Harper Lee took chances to become what she wa ...more

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Feb 03, 2010 Jennifer rated it it was amazing

Shelves: young-adult-novels, engl-3390

This book offers a nice overview of Harper Lee's life for young adult readers. It is interesting and has a strong narrative that holds readers. The book delves into connections between Harper Lee's life and her novel To Kill a Mockingbird as well as her writing of the book and the community reaction to the accolades for Harper Lee.

Nonfiction is an under-represented genre for young adult readers, so this book fills an important niche in the curriculum by offering them well written nonfiction. Th ...more

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