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Donna is the author of several books. Her review means a lot to me.

Sorry I have not answered since I got your book. I read it right away. Some of it was so laugh out loud funny that I read excerpts to Tom in the waiting room of the doctor's office the week I got it. Then, at home, I got to the serious part of the book and I was horrified by what happened. I cannot imagine seeing that and keeping it quiet for so many years.
Your writing makes everything so vivid and I loved the literary references. I can see why your dad read and reread the manuscript.

Finished the book. I loved it. The Uncle Roscoe chapter was hilarious. Thanks for sharing such a warm touching story with us. I felt a "Mockingbird" vibe the moment I started reading.

I'm so excited for and proud of my dad, Ray Viverette!!! He recently wrote his first book, Life on Little River. If you enjoyed Huckleberry Finn or To Kill a Mockingbird, or have been privileged enough to hear my dad tell one of his colorful stories, you will thoroughly enjoy this book. Call me biased, but it's engagingly and wonderfully crafted and rich with laughter and life lessons!!!

Ray's ability to articulate the stories of his childhood transports the reader to rural Eastern North Carolina and into the life of Braxton Hickman. His writing style is colorful and engrossing. I found Life on Little River to be an easy read, which brought back memories my childhood friends and the adventures we shared.

If any of you have had the pleasure to have had a conversation with my father you know the man is quite the character. My father decided to take the time and write down some of his life stories and turned them into a book. From a son's perspective, and to have seen the hours, weeks, and months put into something that's colorful, hilarious, thrilling, and humbling to say the least, it is something quite special. From an outside perspective it's a great read. It has similarities to Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Cold Sassy Tree all rolled into one. If you'd like, my dad has got the first edition up for sale and each will be personally autographed.

Got my copy yesterday also, but didn't get to open it till today. Was my day off...plenty of work to do around the house before evening church service. Sat down for a mid-morning break and decided to open the pkg. When I read your note about "Chapter 5" I started to peak ahead to read it first. Then, I told myself I'd just had to read the first 5 chapters. Well, I couldn't put it down till I'd read the whole book! Absolutely LOVED it.....wanted to read MORE! Tell me there will be another book! I never knew most of that story! Oh, and thanks for including "Thelma" in your autobiography! Love you, Cuzn

I received your book this afternoon and just finished reading it. I was completely amazed! You are Enfield's own Harper Lee. It was beautifully written and was such a touching story. I saw you as a boy and young man and recognized several Enfield characters. Congratulations! I will read it again!

Ray – I finished your book a few days ago. As I enjoyed each chapter I decided to read it one chapter each evening….gave me something to look forward to and drift off to sleep with some very fond memories. I’ve never read a book in in which I knew of some of the characters and the setting. Someone gave you good advice to change the names…..who needs to sit in court the rest of their life! I especially enjoyed the last chapter, very nice touch and tribute to your dad. Bravo! Ray – I know you have a ton of material for another book and enough imagination and storytelling talent to allow the reader to savor each and every chapter. Thank you so much for sharing it with friends and family first. All the best. Leif

It's common for language-loving people to feel that they have a book in them, but my colleague Ray Viverette really did. If you grew up in the South and remember the 60s, you'll identify with the characters and events of Life on Little River. Those who never experienced this particular slice of life have a wonderful introduction awaiting them. This slim volume is fast and fun, but like some of its colorful characters, it packs a serious wallop, too.

Life on Little River is full of colorful adventures and mysterious and conflicting situations that keep the reader interested and wanting more. If you were raised in the South, you will easily relate to and even remember many of the circumstances and events that Viverette describes in his novel. He makes it easy to visualize and understand the adventures and complicated scenarios that Brax is struggling to understand as an adolescent.

As a high school English teacher, I would highly recommend this novel because it provides a pathway for teaching literary devices such as symbolism, dialect, and static and dynamic characters while gaining an understanding of our history and realizing the progress we have made in accepting people who are different from us.

Life on Little River is a refreshing and entertaining novel that every young person should read.

My brother's book made me laugh, cry and made my heart swell with pride that he's my brother. He captured a piece of history of the South. My Daddy is in heaven smiling and proud of Ray and his wonderful family.

Book Review of Life on Little River
Shelia Taylor, High School English Teacher
Mt. Belvieu, Texas

Ray Viverette has truly captured so many of life’s “coming of age” moments in Life on Little River. Whether you lived through the ‘60s or not, you will find yourself “living in the moments” with the main character, Braxton, and his adventures--some of which are those we probably all have enjoyed in childhood, and some of which are truly circumstance of 20th century American growing pains of the South. This book will make you reminisce, appreciate loved ones and freedom, and it will make you laugh, cry, get angry, and celebrate justice. Ray has crafted a realistic, relatable work of fiction with more truth than you might at first realize. Treat yourself to this easy read. Relive some of the wonderful rites of passage of growing up and enjoy watching what karma can do in our lives!

As an English teacher, I really appreciate the many allusions to great literature and the opportunity to teach dialect and the evolution of language within cultures. The characters are deep enough to analyze, but still fun and entertaining for students, and relatable for teens as well as adults. Ray’s use of euphemisms is exceptional and will help students understand that when your granny says, “What goes around comes around,” she’s not kidding—that justice is really “a thing.” The combination of southern vernacular, teenage vernacular, and mature adult vernacular will engage students with vocabulary on their level, and elevate it to where we want them to be as they embark on adulthood. The figurative language use is magnificent and would allow any teacher the opportunity to instruct and exemplify for students its power as we speak and write.

Just finished your delightful book. Brought back many memories and emotions especially about my dad. I understand the book is fiction, but I don't think you could have the dad character so perfectly done without a real role model. Our dads must have been a lot alike. I found a great deal of my dad in your character. I grew up in a home where we never heard any ethnic slurs and we knew everyone was to be treated the same. I don't know that it was ever discussed. We just knew what was right. He was told one time, when he first started selling cars in Enfield and had taken a black customer into his office ahead of a white one, that he would never make it if he continued to treat white customers that way. His very pragmatic response was "their money is just as green as yours". He always treated everyone fairly. Some day we will have to talk more about the book. There were lots of things I recognize in the book and characters. Couldn't believe you wrote about "black bottom". I remember always refusing to say those two words. It always made me feel like I said a dirty word if I said them. We were very fortunate to have grown up in the families we did. What I remember most about your dad was his beautiful voice when he sang in the choir.

Started over and finished "Life on Little River" by my friend and teaching colleague, Ray Viverette. I highly recommend it. LOLR is an intoxicating journey through the racially fueled and turbulent South of the early 1960's.

So to all of his former students, friends and colleagues, take the time to read this often humorous and very emotional journey of a boy's life growing up on Little River.

Really enjoyed your book! Thanks for the journey back to the 60s. Although I wasn't raised in the South, I watched the Civil Rights movement on the news. It was so much better to see the South and this turbulent time period through Braxton's eyes. So glad to have met Braxton, his friends, and family. Thank you.

GTFon August 24, 2017 In our current age of political turmoil, we need books such as this to remind us, not only of heritage but of perhaps a simpler time and era. The author makes us realize there was a period before cell phones, microwaves, instant messages and email - and we were better off for it. Viverette, a career educator, takes greats pains to make the book flow with logical plot points and period piece genre tropes. The ARC flows like a choreographed ballet and it was a pleasure to read. There is something to be said that Southern writers often have a unique ability to tell a story. A story wrapped in unique dialect without being overly idiomatic. Heartwarming. Imaginative. Sometimes inspirational. Simply a good read. And, something a serial reader, like myself, would well enjoy. I gave this book 5 stars, but that in itself doesn't do it justice. I hope he continues to writes and tell heartwarming stories.