Regional novels constitute an important component for research in rural education because they deal with relationships between people and place and with the impact of schooling on human life. Selected incidents from Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1960) and LaFarge's "Laughing Boy" (1929) are congruent with contemporary research findings in terms of (1) relations between language and culture, (2) cultural mores of the land and the family, and (3) relations between schooling and community. Discussion includes ways of utilizing regional novels in the graduate and undergraduate classrooms, directions for future research, and relationships between artistic and scientific approaches to educational research. (Author)