Tuesday, June 13, 2006
To Kill A Mockingbird
By Harper Lee
Atticus Finch, a single father, has his hands full raising his children: Scout and Jem in the 1930s in the deep South. Scout, a tomboy, fills this book with her honesty and innocence while we follow Jem’s transformation from a child to a young man. We share the children’s curiosity of their neighbor, Boo Radley. Is he a violent murderer? Why does no one ever see him leave his house?
Their father, a lawyer, teaches them respect for all people, regardless of race or class. This teaching is challenged when a black man is accused of raping a white girl, and Finch becomes his defense lawyer. The town is divided, neighbors are pitted against neighbors, threats are made to the family, and one night changes everyone’s lives forever.
To Kill a Mockingbird was written in 1960, went on to win a Pulitzer Prize, and was voted the Best Novel of the Centu ry by librraians for the Libray Journal. The author, Harper Lee, a long-time friend of Truman Capote, never wrote another book.
