A touching story of great friendship. Wonderfully told during the Christmas season. A great book for middle graders.

I actually couldn't read this advanced review copy because I couldn't open the pdf on my kindle. However, I read the book as soon as we got it in at the library, and I loved it just as much as I expected to. A really delightful series.

A Christmas Tale (True & Nelle #2) by G. Neri is the second book in the series. The book is a fictional tale of friendship of Harper Lee and Truman Capote. This story focuses on Christmas.

The book is divided up into three Christmas. In the first Christmas, readers see a custody battle over Truman. Truman's mother gave herself a new name, Nina, and has remarried to Joe Capote who wants to adopt Truman.  In a strange twist of events, Truman's father wishes for custody of Truman but does not want to raise Truman. If Truman's father wins custody, Truman will live with his cousins in Alabama. Truman's mother wins custody which disappoints Nelle and Big Body. The second Christmas, Truman has run away from military school. He returns home, but, unfortunately his homecoming is spoiled by a fire that destroys their home. Truman and all of his cousins move in with Big Boy and his family. The third Christmas is an epilogue set in New York City in 1956  when Ms. Lee gets her chance to write the famous novel we've all come to treasure.

The skillful character development continues in this story, with a strain on Tru and Nelle’s relationship because they are growing up into young adults and are unsure how they are supposed to feel about each other.

I recommend this book to middle grade readers and fans of TKAM. 

I received this book from NetGalley via Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children's Book Group and HMH Books for Young Readers in exchange for an honest review.

I had the opportunity to read a digital ARC of this middle grade historical fiction novel from NetGalley in exchange for this review. This book is a follow-up to Neri’s 2016 novel, Tru & Nelle. It continues the fictionalized account of Truman Capote’s and Harper Lee’s friendship during their childhood. I loved the first book, and I think this is a nice sequel.
While this is a historical fiction story, it was inspired by real people and real events that took place in the 1930s. Truman Capote and Nelle Harper Lee were childhood friends in Monroeville, Alabama. This novel opens a few years after the events of the first book, with a custody hearing in which Truman chooses to live with his mother and her husband in New York City. A few years later, Truman is sent to a military school from which he is running away – back to Alabama. Truman arrives in town a few days before Christmas, and it seems there is nothing but trouble from the moment he returns. And while Truman believes he is cursed, against the backdrop of the South during the Jim Crow era, he and those around him learn the true meaning of the grace and giving during the holiday season.
The skillful character development continues in this story, with a strain on Tru and Nelle’s relationship because they are growing up into young adults and are unsure how they are supposed to feel about each other. I think that young readers who enjoyed the first book, will enjoy this one as well. I do think that the second book is dependent on the first book – if a middle grade reader hasn’t read the first book, they probably won’t understand or appreciate the first book.

I was really excited about this book when I first saw it on Netgalley. I've always been really intrigued with the fact that Truman Capote and Harper Lee were friends growing up, but this book really fell flat for me. This was a buddy read with my godkids and halfway through, they very gently suggested we read another book. I think it has a lot of, what could be, interesting scenes but the writing is so monotonous.