'' Leaving Atlanta '' focuses on three fictional students at Ogelthorpe Elementary School : Tasha Baxter , Rodney Green , and Octavia Fuller . Jones chose to use children 's perspectives for her novel " to make a record of how life was for those of us who were too young to understand the complicated social and political landscape of Atlanta , the ' city too busy to hate . ' ” In her " Author 's Note , " Jones mentions she made some alterations to the historic chronology of the Atlanta Child Murders to suit the novel
Atlanta Child Murders
Atlanta murders of 1979–81
Leaving Atlanta