Atticus, Obama, Scout and Christy

Who didn’t see Gregory Peck in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD? The American Film Institute chose Atticus Finch as the greatest hero in 100 years of film history. The book was voted best novel of the century. It’s no surprise that throughout the recent presidential campaign there were slogans suggesting “Atticus Finch for President!” This weekend I finished reading Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning classic for the first time. The story is set in the segregated southern United States of the 1930s. Harper Lee’s hero is an attorney who fights to prove the innocence of a black man unjustly accused of rape. “Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we start is no reason not to try to win,” Atticus says. The racism of that period was too powerful and the jury condemned an innocent man to death. I wish Atticus, along with all the others who fought for racial equality could have watched today’s inauguration of Barack Obama. Yet it was not Atticus, but rather Scout who provided the incentive to finally pick up this book.

Over a year ago I enrolled in a Stanford Continuing Education class “Writing Poetry and Fiction for Children.” Our first assignment was most likely a common one. We were instructed to begin writing each day that week with the words, “I remember” and then continue for at least five minutes. There was no intimidation, no writer’s block involved—a great assignment for a beginner like me. The process was exhilarating. I made connections never before considered while reliving experiences from my childhood. A unifying theme became apparent and I wondered if maybe I could shape these exercises into a book. But what kind? A memoir? A middle-grade novel? As an illustrator I have always focused on picture books.

We did not share this first assignment in the writing class, so I decided that I would get some response from my own critique group. One member said my writing reminded her of The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. I checked it out from the local library and had a delightful read. Cisneros somehow gave me “permission” to write vignettes in a non-linear way, pulling episodes together to tell a story.

Last summer I signed up for another Stanford Writing class, this time “The Art of Memoir.” Part of me struggles with the very idea of writing a memoir; it seems indulgent, and self-important. But I wanted to explore where writing from memory writing would take me. This time classmates had opportunities to “workshop” writing in class. Most wrote from adult perspectives; I wrote events as I experienced them as a child—with only partial understanding of things happening around me. I alluded to adult infidelities and family secrets, wrote of our sudden move across the country 3000 miles away from the father I adored, told of my mother’s struggle to make ends meet and eventually the revelation of my parent’s divorce in a time when divorce was uncommon. I wrote of the buoying power of friendship through all of this.

I’m confused about who my audience would be? An adult reading the work could read between the lines. Could a child digest this work? Is memoir a form for children? I like writing in first person with the innocence of a child, but am curious how to present complex adult concepts and stay in a child’s voice. I asked an editor-friend and she recommended To Kill A Mockingbird as a great novel written from a child’s perspective. It is powerful to watch a sense of conscience grow in Scout and her brother, Jem. Harper Lee did not write a children’s book or a memoir. Categorizing is limiting by definition. I welcome suggestions of other titles written from a child’s point of view whether they are memoir, young adult, middle-grade, or adult fiction. I haven’t figured out yet a form for my memory writing, but I’m enjoying the process.