I headed back to the classics for this book. I remember reading To Kill a Mockingbird
If you haven’t read the book…it’s a must read. This is everything I love in a book…first person, coming of age, under-spoken heros….Ah. If only more books were written like this!? If you’ve read “The Help”, this book has the same feel to it. I think that’s why I loved that book..because I first loved this book.
Here’s what Amazon had to say about it, “The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic.
Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior – to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos. Now with over 18 million copies in print and translated into forty languages, this regional story by a young Alabama woman claims universal appeal. Harper Lee always considered her book to be a simple love story. Today it is regarded as a masterpiece of American literature.”
That really didn’t tell you much about the plot thought did it?? The story takes place during the depression in the south. Scout(a girl) and her brother Jem are being raised by their father (a lawyer)Atticus and their black housekeeper Calpurnia. Their mother did when the two were small. A rape case comes on to trial between a black man and a white lady. Atticus is the court appointed attorney for the black man…and there the story goes with lots of unrest between the race and social class.
Years later a movie was made. As soon as I’m done writing this post I’ll be off to see if I can find it somewhere. I’d love to watch it!
Amazon readers say 4.6 stars. I was actually shocked then went back and read a few of the reviews by people who gave the book 1 star. They didn’t hate the book. They were upset about about the shipping. AH..that was good to know because for me, this book is a 5. I don’t give them often so you have to know it’s good.
Today I am thankful for my parents and the way I was raised. I wasn’t raised in a home that harbored prejudices. My husband’s growing up was different. I loved my mother-in-law dearly and the only complaint in my entire time of knowing her is that she said the “N” word. It bothered me…it bothered me bad. At my home growing up I would have been corrected about that. Hearing it from a 90 year old woman was really hard for me.
At one point I asked my father if something had happened that he was respectful to all-and not like my mother in law. He said a few things… He said growing up they had a migrant family that came for summer and helped my Dad’s family. They were black. They had a boy my Dad’s age and the played together. Dad said he quickly learned that there were little differences. Dad also served in WWII. There he had black friends there as well. He said when someone is covering your back, you really don’t care about the color of their skin.
My mom grew up poor -very poor. From her I learned that good people can come from bad situations.
My parents were much like Atticus….on the side of right and quietly made a good impression. I so appreciate that. So today I am thankful for my parents and the way I was raised.
Excellent book. In my family Papa was prejudice (I had to debrief my kids when we left his place years ago) but my mom was not and I sure am not. People are people. So glad times have changed, though not enough I know!
If you’ve not seen the movie it’s a must!! One of my all time favorites.
I just finished this book last week. I loved it! It was Harper Lee’s only book. I wish she had written more but she said she’d said all she had to say in the first one. She’s an interesting character herself.
Interesting that you mentioned The Help in relation to To Kill A Mockingbird because when I read The Help, I immediately thought it was told through the eyes of Scout as an adult. I loved both of these books and will read them again and again.
I read this book for the first time when I was about 10. I didn’t know that it was a classic, and I didn’t understand all I read. It was a book that I read over and over as a teen just like I read Alice in Wonderland and Tom Sawyer over and over. Imagine my surprise when I found it was assigned reading in one of my English classes!