I quite liked this one. I don't know that it's quite right to compare it to "To kill a mocking bird" but I suppose it does deal with some of the same issues. This book feels like a fairly honest look at some of the nastiness that can fester in small country towns. It can be intolerable and oppressive, but it was nice to see Charlie look at it in a pragmatic way and start to see some of the reasons why it has ended up like that, and eventually accept it. No kid should have to go through things like this, and yet I found it all almost believable. Maybe if they'd been a little older?