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Summary: Out of the Mouths of Babes. . . .
Review: With 600+ reviews, I'll spare you the plot details and synopsis. Simply put, I can't think of a better book that has been written in English (or any other language, for that matter). I have taught it for years to my sophomores, and I love teaching it every time. Harper Lee's narration and dialogue are so wonderfully simple and child-like, while dealing with some very serious and heady topics: racism, hatred, and bigotry. She manages to make Scout, who is nine at the beginning of the novel, sound like a nine-year-old--not an easy task. Many authors who have children as narrators fall into the trap of having them sound too young and immature or too adult and sophistocated. Scout sounds like a whiny, impulsive, little brat at times and then makes the most profound and insightful statements at others--as most intelligent children do. . . . This, I believe, is Harper Lee's greatest accomplishment in this novel. Yes, she deals wonderfully with the Nazi movements in Europe, the local racism in Maycomb, and the private prejudices against Boo Radley. However, those issues have been tackled before and since. Never have they been tackled with a narrator such as Scout, however. She brings a naivete, child-like innocence, and humor to the novel and its larger, darker, deeper topics and themes.Harper Lee deserves so much credit for not trying to outdo herself by writing more books of a similar nature or even, God forbid, a sequel. She said all that needed to be said and stopped talking. Other authors might want to take a lesson from Ms. Lee. In short, no American student should be allowed to receive a high school diploma without having read TKM and writing a pretty darned good essay over it. I'd settle for them just reading it, though. . . . .
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Summary: It was confussing, but good
Review: I liked the book. It was interesting how the book was based on a flashback, insted of a present time.
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Summary: A TIMELESS PERENNIAL DELIGHT
Review: Two motherless children try to understand life in their small southern town during the depression. A thoroughly engaging and moving reading experience, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is one of my all-time favourite books. Those kids (Jem and Scout Finch) are so funny and you just know that the town of Maycomb HAD to be modeled on a real town (it was - Monroeville, Alabama - where author Harper (Nelle) Lee grew up). A story about growing up and the social conscience which binds us all, this book takes place in the depressed year of 1932. The children's father, Atticus Finch,is a man who's morals and conscience remind one of Abraham Lincoln! The book is written from the point of view of Jean Louise ("Scout") Finch, a six-year-old tomboy who wears dungarees: she would rather roll in old tires and climb trees with her brother Jem and their friend Dill - he was based on Lee's childhood friend Truman Capote - than do "girl things". There are characters in the book which weren't included in the excellent 1962 film, such as the matronly scold Aunt Alexandra and Zeebo, Calpurnia's (the much-loved black housekeeper) son. Miss Dubose is a crotchety caution who's addicted to morphine (she falls asleep at the same time everyday while Jem reads to her - as punishment for destroying her garden). Miss Maudie and Stephanie Crawford are amusing characters. I love the part when Ms. Crawford claimed that Boo Radley was gazing at her from outside her bedroom window - Miss Maudie curtly replied thusly: "Well, what did you do, Stephanie? - move over and make room for him?" That shut her up. The comical moments are amusingly life-like and therefore easy to relate to. The surprisingly powerful and emotional revelation towards the end of the novel is something which one can only experience by reading literature of the top rank; this Pulizer Prize - winning novel has won the hearts of millions and will undoubtedly enlighten generations to come!
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Summary: As Sweet As A Mockingbird Sings!
Review: Here is a perfect example of a coming-of-age tale that refuses to be either melodramatic, mushy, or even boring! A story that should be read again and again. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is the classic novel written in 1960 by Harper Lee to great critical acclaim, received the Pulitzer in 1961 and became a classic film in 1962 starring Gregory Peck as the hero Atticus Finch. We are in the life and times of 1930s Alabama, the town of Maycomb County, as seen through the eyes of a young tomboyish girl named Jean Louise Finch, or "Scout" as she is called by her widowed lawyer father Atticus and her older brother Jeremy "Jem" Finch. The span of the story takes place within three years of their lives. From their summer get-togethers with their young friend Dill from Meridian, Mississippi; to their adventures in trying to make their mysterious neighbor Arthur "Boo" Radley come outside; to the courtroom drama of black man Tom Robinson accused of raping a white woman by the name of Mayella Ewell. All characters are positively wonderful! There's the Finchs' black maid, Calpurnia, who acts like the children's mother and guardian; their colorful neighbors: Miss Maudie Atkinson, Miss Stephanie Crawford, and Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose; the town's sheriff Mr. Heck Tate, and the Ewells. All involved help move along the story with both poignancy and humor. The ending of the book, where Scout and Jem are saved by Boo Radley, is perhaps the sweetest moment in any book. The connection between the little girl and the mysterious man is heartbreaking! Harper Lee created a kind of hero to us in creating Atticus Finch, the strong, stalwart man who never hit his children, much less yell at them. Even when Jem and Scout would get into trouble, he would always be there with his broad shoulders and comforting arms. Gregory Peck, in the film, was the ideal choice for Atticus Finch, and won the Best Actor Oscar for it as well. My only complaint, and this is usually with all books and novels, is too much detail to the surroundings of the characters. There are moments when Miss Lee tends to fill about five pages with description of Alabama during the Great Depression. That, to me, tends to slow the story down. Even THE GODFATHER had that same problem, even though it too is a great book. All in all, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD lives up to its reputation as a very important and classic novel.
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Summary: Powerful Writing with Powerful Messages
Review: When I read "To Kill a Mockingbird" as required reading in school, I knew that I was being introduced to the idea that literature could be used to communicate important social ideas. It is beautifully written and extremely memorable. I have re-read it since then, and found it to be just as powerful for an adult. This novel takes big social issues and makes them extremely real and personal. Honesty, prejudice, tolerance, bigotry, racism, hatred, and mob violence all get examined under strong floodlights and through the eyes of a stubbornly and bravely moral lawyer and especially through the eyes of his two children, Jem and Scout. Read this one along with, or at the same time as, your kids, and leave time for a nice, long talk afterward.
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Summary: To kill a mockingbird report
Review: to kill a mockingbird is a very good book. although it is long it is way worth reading.hope you enjoy the book as much as i did
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Summary: the book i didn't mind reading for english class
Review: I just finished reading To Kill A Mockingbird for my english class and I loved it. Most books I've read for classes have been so incredibly boring... don't get me wrong, I love to read, I just hate assigned reading. I had of course heard of To Kill A Mockingbird and all I knew about it was that it is a classic. I avoided it for that reasons, classics bore me. I wasn't too enthusiastic to start, but once I did I was so deeply involved in it I could't put it down, and finished it days before I was assigned to. To Kill A Mockingbird is a story of learning expiriances and ethics. It's all from the point of view of a nine year old girl, Scout, in a small Alabama town. She has a brother who's a few years older than her, and her father, Atticus Finch, who is a lawyer. Her mother died when Scout was two, and as a result Scout became quite a tomboy, much to the dislike of her Aunt Alexandra. The first part of the story is Scout's childhood. She is nieve and innocent, and since the book is from her point of view she expresses the way she sees things in a cute and often funny way. When she's talking to a boy's father she says: "I know Walter. He's a real nice boy. I beat him up one time but he was real nice about it." A major part of Scout's childhood is Aurthur ("Boo") Radley. Boo is secluded from the world. As a child he stabbed his father with siccors and was almost sent to an insane assilum. He wasn't, but never talked to anyone again, never coming out doors. He was always a sick man, and rumors and horror stories were always told by children about him. But this shy and hidden man was not the monster kids thought of him. He was really a kind and caring man, almost a mother figure to Jem and Scout, without them knowing it. Jem, Scout, and their friend Dill often fantisize what it would be like to meet Boo. As the book progresses Atticus Finch, Scout's father, takes a case for a black man, Tom Robinson, falsely accused of rapeing a white woman. Because of the prejudice and racism of the small southern town, Judge Taylor asks Atticus to take the case because he knows that Atticus is the only one who will really try. Atticus has ethics and morales that no one else has, and knows that Tom will be accused simply because of his race. When Scout asks why he takes the case he explains to her that if he didn't he wouldn't be able to ask her and Jem to do things, and he wouldn't be able to hold his head up in the town. Atticus stands by his belifes, but in the end, because of the racism of the town, Tom is called guilty. Scout learns right from wrong, and learns how things work. To Kill A Mockingbird, (partially based on Harper Lee's childhood, minus the case of Tom Robinson), is a learning expiriance for Scout. Each chapter she learns something knew, from the power of hate and racism and wrongness in the world, to standing up for what's right. She is much more mature by the end of the book, and understands that some things just won't change, but they should be stood up for. To Kill A Mockingbird was an amazing story. I loved the book completley. I would recomend it to anyone. Five stars.
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Summary: This book was great!
Review: I loved this touching story, as told by 8-year old Scout Finch, about growing up in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama amidst racial turmoil and the depression. It was just a great story. Now that I am finished with the book I already miss Scout, Jem, Dill, Atticus, and of course Boo. If you are looking for a book with a great story written by an author who knows how to write and use the english language, above the Grisham level, then this is a book for you.
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Summary: "Shoot all the blue-jays you want, if you can hit'em...
Review: But remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird. I'm a 13-year-old from Reykjavik, Iceland, and my American mother told me to read this old book she had on her shelf. She pulled down an old thing with an orange sketch of a bird on the front of it, and I thought: What in the sam hill does she want me to read now? It wasn't until later that I found out where mom had picked that familiar phrase up, just like it wasn't until later that I realised how wrong I had been. This novel is about kids, and how their peaceful little town was transformed into a place of racism and hate by one lie told by a white farmer. Jeremy Atticus (Jem) and Jean Louise Finch (Scout), the children of a lawyer in the town of Maycomb, spend their time just like any ordinary kids. That is, until they meet Charles Baker Harris, better known as Dill, and the three of them start plotting how to get their mysterious neighbor Arthur (Boo) Radley to come out. They are blissfully unaware of it when a negro man, Tom Robinson, is accused of the rape of the daughter of a drunkard farmer, Robert E. Lee Ewell (Bob). But when spring comes and their father is appointed to defend young Tom, the children, along with the whole of Maycomb, are drawn into the swirl of strong feelings, racism, lies and hate that is building up aroundthe case. One of the best scenes of the book is the trial of Tom Robinson. I'm not going to tell you any more about it, but I'lll let you in on one secret. The two storylines: That of the children and Boo Radley, and that of Atticus Finch and the "rape" of Mayella Ewell, will be tied together into a perfect bow. If you aren't interested in the book after reading a few of the reviews on this site, I'm very surprised. This book is meant for people of all ages, not just adults. I'd even read it to my 7 and 9-year old siblings.
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Summary: From a soon-to-be teacher...
Review: I rate this book a 5-star-plus! I read it for the first time in the 9th grade and have read it two more times since then. When I read it about 6 months ago at the age of 22, I couldn't believe how exciting it was, even though I already knew what was going to happen. I think this is a classic and a must read for older students and adults. Even though it happened in another time and place (for me), it is easy to relate to and offers many life lessons.
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