Bibliographic Information


Harper, L. (1960). To kill a mockingbird. New York, NY: Grand Central Publishing Hachette Book Group USA.

ISBN: 978-0446310789

 

Plot Summary

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is set a small town during the Great Depression. The year is 1930 in Maycom, Alabama and for Jean Louise Finch it feels like any other summer. Jean, who goes by Scout lives with her older brother Jeremy and their Father Atticus. A young boy named Dill moves to town and the three kids immediately bond and become friends. The town recluse Boo Radley both fascinates and terrifies the three children. Scout and Jeremy’s father an attorney is appointed by the court to defend a black man named Tom Robinson who is as accused of raping a young white women. The town unhappy with their father for defending Robinson calls him racial slurs and horrible names. As the trial progresses the three children find themselves becoming wrapped in the mystery of what really raped Mayella Ewell. Soon the summer becomes like no summer ever before as the children learn lessons about race, honesty, honor, friendship, and bravery. 

 

Critical Evaluation


This book breaks my heart, because I can’t stand it when innocent people don’t win. Even though all the evidence said Radley didn’t do it, he is still falsely accused and convicted of the crime. The racial injustice in this book is such a sad reflection of a truly terrible time in the southern history of the United States. The story takes place during a time when segregation was at its worst. I felt like there was never justice for the characters. There was no justice for Radley, no justice for Mayella, and no justice for Mayella's father who dies in the end trying to get the justice he wants. I think it is interesting that Harper told the story really through the eyes of the children. We see them grow so much during the story. It goes from a summer of innocence to a summer of growing up as they learn harsh truths about the world they live in. I also really like how Harper presented the females in Scout’s life. Her maid and her neighbor were outspoken and strong women. I liked that Harper presented them in a light that was favorable and didn’t down play them for having a voice as a female. 

 

Reader’s Annotation


It is 1930 in Maycom, Alabama and Scout’s father Atticus is supposed to defend a young black man accused of raping a white women. Is the man innocent? Even if he is the town doesn’t care and wants him hung for the crime. 

 

Author Information

The following information was taken from the author’s biography,

http://www.biography.com/people/harper-lee-9377021#synopsis.

 

“Writer Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926, in Monroeville, Alabama. In 1959, she finished the manuscript for her Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller To Kill a Mockingbird. Soon after, she helped fellow-writer and friend Truman Capote write an article for The New Yorker, which would later evolve into his nonfiction masterpiece, In Cold Blood. In July 2015, Lee published her second novel Go Set a Watchman, which was written before To Kill a Mockingbird and portrays the later lives of the characters from her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Lee died on February 19, 2016, at the age of 89. “

​

​

The following information was taken from the author’s biography,

http://www.neabigread.org/books/mockingbird/readers-guide/about-the-author/. 

​

"If Nelle Harper Lee ever wanted proof that fame has its drawbacks, she didn't have to look farther than her childhood neighbor, Truman Capote. After her enormously successful first novel, she lived a life as private as Capote's was public.

Nelle—her first name was her grandmother's spelled backward—was born on April 28, 1926, in Monroeville, Alabama. Her mother, Frances Cunningham Finch Lee, was a homemaker. Her father, Amasa Coleman Lee, practiced law. Before A.C. Lee became a title lawyer, he once defended two black men accused of murdering a white storekeeper. Both clients, a father and son, were hanged.  As a child, Harper Lee was an unruly tomboy. She fought on the playground. She talked back to teachers. She was bored with school and resisted any sort of conformity. The character of Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird would have liked her. In high school Lee was fortunate to have a gifted English teacher, Gladys Watson Burkett, who introduced her to challenging literature and the rigors of writing well. Lee loved nineteenth-century British authors best, and once said that her ambition was to become "the Jane Austen of south Alabama." 

 

Unable to fit in with the sorority she joined at the University of Alabama, she found a second home on the campus newspaper. Eventually she became editor-in-chief of the Rammer Jammer,a quarterly humor magazine on campus. She entered the law school, but she "loathed" it. Despite her father's hopes that she would become a local attorney like her sister Alice, Lee went to New York to pursue her writing. She spent eight years working odd jobs before she finally showed a manuscript to Tay Hohoff, an editor at J.B. Lippincott. At this point, it still resembled a string of stories more than the novel that Lee had intended. Under Hohoff's guidance, the perspective was changed to Scout as a child, and two and a half years of rewriting followed. When the novel was finally ready for publication, the author opted for the name "Harper Lee" on the cover, because she didn't want to be misidentified as "Nellie." To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960 to highly favorable reviews and quickly climbed the bestseller lists, where it remained for eighty-eight weeks. In 1961, the novel won the Pulitzer Prize."

 

Genre

Fiction, Historical, Realistic, Classic

 

Curriculum Ties


Could be used for a unit on history, racism, language arts, Great Depression

 

Booktalking Ideas


• Who is the mockingbird in the story and why?

• What makes To Kill a Mockingbird a literary classic?

• What did Scout learn in the story?

• Did any characters ever get justice? Explain?

 

Reading Level/ Interest Age


Grades 9-12

 

Challenge Issues


Violence, Rape, Racism

 

Challenge Issue Resources (for usage in a challenge situation)

• Active Listening

• Explanation of why it was chosen for the collection (Rational)

• Awards

• Reader Advisory Reviews (Students, Parents, Educators)

• Positive and Negative Reviews

• National Council of Teachers “Right to Read”

• ALA Strategies and Tips for Dealing with Challenges to Library Materials

• ALA Bill of Rights on Intellectual Freedom

• Library Selection Policy & Library District Reconsideration Form

 

Why I choose it

I choose to read this book because it is one the books my students read where I work for their Language Arts class.