Author Charles Crichton says that even if his book was inspired by Harper Lee's book it isn't a big deal. Crichton reminds us that a new idea hasn't come out of Hollywood for years, and no one gives them a hard time.

New York—The publishing world is sharply divided over the newest plagiarism scandal rocking the industry, this time involving a little-known author whose new book is strikingly similar to a literary classic.

Full disclosure: we saw the movie, well, we saw half of the movie, “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Black and white, good triumphs over bad, creepy neighbor blah, blah, blah. We were assigned the book in junior high, but read like the first 30 pages and fell asleep. So we aren’t exactly Harper Lee scholars. But, even to our untrained literary eye, Charles Crichton’s new book, “To Bean a Black Bird” at first glance seems a little familiar.

Crichton, no relation to that dinosaur book writer dude, has said through his attorneys that he had never read Harper Lee’s classic before spending 18 months penning his new novel. But from what smarter people than we are have said, that’s hard to believe.
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