“A Tale for One City” returns to Chattanooga

Chattanooga readers have selected two books to read and discuss according to the Chair of the Steering Committee of "A Tale for One City,” Dr. Verbie Lovorn Prevost, Katharine Pryor Professor of English and Director of English Graduate Studies at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. The books are From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg and A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines.

“These are terrific texts, so we are looking forward to widespread participation throughout Chattanooga,” Prevost said. UTC is a supporter of the city-wide campaign.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler tells the tale of Claudia and her brother Jamie, who run away from home to teach their parents a lesson. They move into the Metropolitan Museum of Art where they hide away or leave when the museum is open. When the children become fascinated by the arrival of a sculpture of an angel, the two set out to verify that Michelangelo created it. Their investigation leads them to the mansion of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

A Lesson Before Dying is set in a small Cajun community in the late 1940s, A Lesson Before Dying is the story of one man condemned to die for a crime he did not commit and a young man who visits him in his cell. The two men forge a bond as they both come to understand the simple heroism of resisting—and defying—the expected.

Everyone in Chattanooga is encouraged to read one of the books, and then meet with others to discuss the story. “A Tale for One City” is a way of promoting literacy, uniting people in the community to find common threads that they share.