If only we could pick our family...

Hi again! Today I'm gunna tell y'all about one of my family members, who is also a girl and her name, is Aunt Alexandra. Aunt Alexandra and I have never quite seen eye to eye. She has never liked my overalls or,the  way I don't care if I have perfect hair or not, or if my hands aren't always perfectly clean after I play outside. Maybe I just wasn't given the"lady" gene, she took our families stock. And if that is the case, then that really isn't my fault! I mean she stole my ability to be real polite and whatnot. I don't really like dresses and all that, you can't play tag in a dress! Even though my clothes aren't really what Aunt Alexandra wants me to wear, I still admire the way she puts on a tough front. Although she believes that her job is really just to look pretty and do what the men say, she has to be strong right after finding out something sad, like when the news of Tom's escape, they had to pretend like it was a regular old day. That would be real hard, to have to stay calm and collected and whatnot. That could be a useful skill you know, like acting being in a movie, you have to be able to pretend like nothins' wrong, even if everything around you is crumbling. Wow! Aunt Alexandra should be an actor! Shes real good at pretending things, she even pretends to be nice to Cal, but we know she dosen't like her... Anyways, maybe I should try that! I pretend to be training for movie, but instead of being in a movie- I could be training to be a lady! Aunt Alexandra may have been onto something my whole life, she was trying to help me realize that if I want to be accepted as a member of the Finch family, I should be more like lady, and like the members of our family. Aunt Alexandra wrote me, sayin that this was the way to go about bein a lady. In the letter she put all this stuff about how I should dress, talk, eat and sit. I didn't even know there was a wrong way to sit! Aunt Alexandra has always been such a proper girl, she does just what everyone expects of her, just like all our neighbours do. said that if I can do a good job showin her how to act like a proper Finch lady, that she would help me finish the idea by pickin a real pretty dress up for me. I think Ill invite a bunch of other Southern belle's like Cal and Miss.Maudie and we can all have a tea party like ladies! Pinkies out!!!

My dear neighbour: Miss Maudie- Your flowers are beautiful!

Hi Everyone! It's me Scout again, today in class our teacher Miss. Caroline asked us to paint a picture inspired by the first person that came to mind, and the first person that came to my mind, was Miss.Maudie. Miss.Maudie is the neighbour who lives across the street from our family. She is a very intelligent lady who spends a lot of time working on her flower beds. Some might say she is obsessed, I would just say that she has a passion for beautiful, living gifts from God she goes to the same Church as us too- or at least that's what she tells us! When Miss. Maudie's house burnt down last month she had to move to a smaller house, but she is still close and seems to be very happy! She enjoys being able to tend to her new larger gardens and being outdoors enjoying the scenery. She is such a nice woman, she never makes fun of my clothes, or tells me that I should be a "lady" like Aunt Alexandra does. Miss.Maudie also makes really delicious cake, its the best tasting for miles and miles. It just doesn't get any better than her cake, its a marvelous masterpiece of a dessert!This is how to make her famous cake. Miss Maudie's tastes better though, because she substitute ingredients for ones that taste extra special. Sometimes when Jem is getting on my nerves, I go to Miss. Maudie's and we sit on her front porch, then if I'm real lucky she brings leftover cake outside from the dinner before and we share it while discussing stories about the old town of Maycomb. Sometimes we talk about Boo Radley, and what he was like as a young boy. She told us that he wasn't as scary as everyone around here thought he was. And that he was actually a sad boy, with a lonely childhood. It made me sad when she told me about it, because he is so misunderstood. I wouldn't want people thinkin I ate rats and whatnot.

My Friend and Cook: Calpurnia

Hi Everyone! My name is Jean Lousie Finch, but everybody calls me Scout. I am 6 years old and have a brother who is 10 years old. I thought today I would tell you a little bit about my friend and cook. Her name is Calpurnia, but we call her Cal. Cal  is very stubborn and she  always gets me into trouble. Cal is never wrong- because Atticus always takes her side. She is a grown up after all and Atticus has known Cal for a real long time too. Cal has been our cook since always! She's cooked for us since my big brother Jem was born, and that means that she has taken care of me since I was a baby too. Cal is a smart lady, she is a colored lady and she is ony of the only ones in town who can read and write, she  taught me how to write too. I learned to read from Atticus, he reads me books and I look and listen to the words. I like reading books and drawing pictures. I drew a picture of Cal and me. I am wearing my favorite overalls and she is wearing her favorite dress and matching shoes.This is one of her church outfits, she goes to a different church than we do, cause she's colored. I wish we could all just go to the same church.  Cal is smiling in the picture but in real life Cal does not smile that much, she gets mad at me an awful lot like when I am late commin home she hollers real loud. She gets real worked up over silly things, she does not have to though, all she has to do is be nice to me and I would come home right on time! She hollers though and if Atticus hears then I get in trouble, maybe one day we will come up with a secret code or somethin, one time me and Jem made a knockin code. So if you wanted something you would knock on the floor and listen for an answer, one knock meant" come into my room I will help" and two meant "go away I don't care" Jem usually knocked two times so it was not really a fair code. Oh gosh darn cotton pickers, I can hear her shouting for dinner right now, and then I will walk Jem to school. I should go see Atticus and see if he will let me play outside while Jem is at school. There is a bunch of That would be real fun, I could go and visit Miss. Maudie and we could talk about her flowers. She is a neighbour of ours, maybe sometime I will write about her too!This is how you get to Jem's school. Miss Maudie's house is right across the street, see it?