Harper Lee may not attend. But her hometown of Monroeville, AL, has spruced up its main square and planned a BBQ, silent auction, readings, and a three-legged race past camellia bushes and green lawns to f?e the 50th anniversary of Lee's seminal novel, To Kill A Mockingbird (Lippincott, 1960).

Lee has visited the local Beehive book store.

"The whole reason for the celebration is to honor Nelle Harper Lee and her contribution to the town and the world," says Stephanie Rogers, acting director of the Monroe County Heritage Museum, tucked into the Old Monroe County Courthouse, where Lee's father practiced law and which served as the model for the courthouse in the film version of Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning story. "It's so special and as many librarians know, it's required reading all over the world."

Educators and fans have planned activities around the globe and online to talk about the novel's meaning and to share their passion for the coming-of-age story set in the South, involving a young girl and her attorney father, who defends a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.

But in Monroeville, which claims the story and its writer as their own, a four-day celebration is set for July 8-11^th, ending on the very day 50 years ago that readers first met six-year-old Scout Finch, her brother Jeb, father Atticus, and their friend Dill, who many believe is based on Lee's childhood pal Truman Capote, the author of classics, including In Cold Blood (Random House, 1966), a novel that Lee helped him report.

Inside the picture-postcard courthouse, visitors from all over the world sign the pages of a large registry located just below the balcony where Lee and Capote would sit and watch her father practice law as light streamed through its 99 glass windows. The museum honors both Lee and Capote, but it's Mockingbird that's the true star here, with even a piece of the tree where local children would hide toys, and find surprises-and which Lee borrows for her story-lovingly preserved behind glass outside the courtroom.

The old Monroeville Courthouse

The town hopes more visitors will travel in the coming week to listen to readings of the book, hear stories from friends who grew up with Lee, or even linger over a cup of coffee at the local bookstore, Beehive Coffee & Books, a recent addition to the town. Lee visited the book store when it opened and proclaimed it "a lovely place," says owner Crissy Nettles, who restored the shop with her husband and recently won the 2010 Alabama Trust for Historic Preservation Rehabilitation.

The first 50 visitors who enter the Beehive after 8 a.m. on July 10 can write a note to "Miss Nelle," as Nettles calls her, and she will then deliver them to Lee's minister, the Rev. Thomas L. Butts, who promised to read each one to the 84-year-old Lee.

It still remains unknown whether Lee will show up for the festivities. But to architects of the anniversary weekend, they hope those who wish to celebrate her novel and their love of a girl named Scout will still come to enjoy some collards and turnips, maybe buy a copy of the book, and explore the town to find their own connection to Mockingbird, Monroeville, and Maycomb, the fictional town Lee built for her characters.

While a dairy now sits on the spot of Lee's childhood home, a stone wall still rests between the plot and an empty patch of land where Capote's house once sat, and where the two likely spent long summer days during their childhood cooking up stories that would one day both entertain and change the way readers see themselves and the world.

"People come here for a tangible connection to Maycomb," says Rogers. "From the old jail building, to the rock wall between Scout and Dill's house, which is still there. I want people to see these things. The book was influenced by the town and the people. And the whole idea is to honor that."