Yocona Puff Adder

Almost as much a nature book as the human nature book it is, Yocona Puff Adder's first-person storyline shares little-known facts that demonstrate life is more interesting than simple fiction. Developed around real-life events and twisted truths in the unique genre of historical faction, this coming-(and going)-of-age novel is more than a memoir. Portrayals of characters with only a tad more than their names camouflaged are powerfully close to veritable. Although these 51 chapters could be stand-alone short stories, continuity carries over from one chapter into the next. Constantly tested in segregated Mississippi, the normal bigotry of the times can't stand up to the unreserved friendship of these motherless seven-year-olds. Childhood for city boy Scott and country Charlie Boy is grounded in mischief around Oxford's Bailey Woods and in the rural community of Taylor. A healthy respect for each other during youth is gained through backwoods and river bottom adventures. The Yocona and Little Tallahatchie Rivers nurture them to the teen years, when they help each other to take charge of their lives. Praise from -Curtis Wilkie, University of Mississippi Cook Chair of Journalism: 'Yocona Puff Adder has a lot of Huck Finn in it. The tale is rich with folksy anecdote and involves two boys, one white, the other black, as they come of age and recognize that race is a critical factor of life in the rural South. The locale is obviously Oxford, Mississippi, and though the characters have been given fictitious names, some of them, such as William Faulkner, are easily recognized in a fascinating town where Inmon, himself, grew up during an interesting period in history'