To Kill a Mockingbird

Rating:
Summary: A MASTERPIECE!!!!!
Review: How can one begin a review about "To Kill A Mockingbird?"

The book is so full of Passion and Tenderness...that my heart is still overflowing from the words.

"Mockingbird" is told from a child's point of view, Scout. This is what makes the book so brilliant and magical. Scout's honesty and playfulness bring such an effective narrative that the story stays with the reader long after they have finished the book.

A black man wrongly accused of raping a white girl...
The story is familiar.
Scount's father Atticus is the attorney.
I was thinking about how I would describe Atticus and the first word that came to my mind was "holy"
standing out from the rest of the town as a true man of
integrity. He is the attorney for the black man. He is the attorney who was told not to take the case. He says: The law may change, but nothing will change unless the heart does."

Scout asks him this question in the book:
"I don't get it Atticus, Mrs. Gates hates Hitler."
" Well she should." Atticus says.
"But I heard her say that the next thing the blacks
will be doing is marrying our kind. How can she hate Hitler
and say that about the blacks too?"

Scout is her father's daughter!

And see what I mean about a child's point of view? Lee absolutely knew that children saw situations more clearly than adults. We can learn plenty from them!

I wonder if Lee added Boo as a charactor as kind of a metaphor for racism...he was hidden away like some animal, people were afraid of him. Until he finally came out...Face to Face.

"Atticus, when I finally saw him, why he was real nice." Scout said.
"Most people are, Scout, when you finally SEE them."

A Mockingbird doesn't dig up your garden or hurt anything...he just sings and sings beautiful songs...that's why we don't kill um. That's why hurting most anything is like killin a mockingbird.

Rating:
Summary: amazing! youll see everything in a new light
Review: I read this book for my 8th grade english class, and after i finished it, i could not stop thanking my teacher for making us read it. it truly gave me a different perspective on everything-people, places, things, and even ideas. my entire view of life changed, and i learned to appreciate things so much more. anyone can relate to it. ANYONE. if you havent read this, i seriously recommend it. it most certainly will not disappoint you.

Rating:
Summary: 't's a tolable good book!
Review: To Kill a Mocking Bird represents a handful of books and authors that are able to transport the reader directly into it's pages. One may find that they can relate with one or more of the characters in the book, and sometimes with more than one at a time.

This book is about many things, and although it is very complex it is easy to follow due the similarities to life itself. Like life, there are many characters. Some that are easy to hate, easy to love, and those that are plainly repulsive because of their disrespect for their fellow man.

This story is indeed about prejudice. It paints a despicable ( but reasonably accurate) picture of the hate that permeated the daily lives of those in rural Alabama. It also portrays the prejudice that is applied to those that are different for reasons other than skin color. This book is also about the preservation of childhood innocence.

Scout and Jem enjoy a pleasure that many of us only wish we could have experienced. That pleasure was the love and care of a father that stood for what was right to the point of his own harm. Many of us have never known that type of uncompromising love that Atticus Finch so readily exudes. He is a man, as Miss Maudie says, "was born to do our unpleasant jobs for us". The character of Atticus Finch still stands as a man among men. We could use a few like him today.

Jean and Jeremy find themselves subject to the harsh realities of poverty and prejudice, but they are always able to take refuge in the affection of their father. Atticus makes many efforts to protect his children. His primary tool is truth. He speaks openly and honestly with his children. Again we would do well to take a few notes from Atticus.

The true value of this book is it's exposure of hate and bigotry, but it is valuable in so many ways. It has more to offer than could be considered in any review. Were it's many complex details of relationship to be reviewed and catalogued by the greatest minds in psychology and human sciences it would require multiple volumes.

Although I highly recommend this book, I would offer a word of caution to the reader. The book uses the "n" word repeatedly, and I suppose that within it's historical context may be accurate, nonetheless I found it quite unsettling. There are a number of other explicative statements, but I would suggest that they are also supplied to offer a contextual reality that would otherwise be lost without them.

This is a timeless and enjoyable story. The entire human drama is put on display in a small rural Alabama town.

Rating:
Summary: My favorite book of all time
Review: This is my favorite book. My uncle bought it for me when I was twelve, and at the time I thought, okay, I'll read it . . . one day. A couple months later I finally picked it up, and couldn't put it down.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a profound novel because it deals with a topic no one can understand (racism) but tells it in a language everybody can understand (the narrator is a little girl named Scout). Scout's view of the world at the beginning of the novel is like that of any other child: innocent. You know, the lies we all used to believe, that everybody on earth is nice and kind and that we all love each other, etc., etc. But then Scout, her brother Jem, and her friend Dill (who is based on Harper Lee's childhood friend, Truman Capote) are compelled to face reality all of a sudden when their father defends a black man on trial for rape. The children learn the hard truths of life, that this world isn't always a pleasant place after all.
But what is so extraordinary about Scout is that she never speaks with hate. She speaks with a child's innocence, and describes complex things in a child's way, which makes it easier to understand. I don't think this book would have been the same if Atticus had told the story, or if this had been told in third-person point of view. Then it would have lacked its young narrator's frankness.
There aren't enough words to describe To Kill a Mockingbird. This is by far the best book I have ever read, and perhaps the greatest contribution an American writer has made to the literary world. To put it simply, this book should be read by everyone. If we all looked at this world as Scout does in this book, maybe this world would be a better place.

Rating:
Summary: my opinon about what I have read .
Review: I think that this was an interersting novel. When I first read this book I thought It was boring. It was like a true story because things like that happen. All the characters in the story
were described well. Throughout the story, I was really into
certain chapters. What really grabbed my attention was the movie.
I saw the movie abut two months ago. I really enjoyed it even though it was different from the book. My favorite characters were Jem and Scout, they were brave childern. Besides that the conclusion was not so bad.

Rating:
Summary: This is Great American Literature at it's finest!
Review: Fortunately, fifteen years (or more) ago, I read this book on my own before my English teacher required it... this is not a book that needs to be analysed and charted. It is one that needs to be absorbed, and felt. It does NOT deserve to be one of those books students hate merely because it's required reading.

The characters are as real as books get, the small town one that you might live in now, or your grandparents might have lived in decades ago. The issues - from racism, sibling relationships, and just plain growing up - touch your soul. And it's just plain fun to read.

It's a bit of American culture that should be cherished... passed on as the valuable art it is - but to tear it apart with attempts to read into symbolism, or to over analyze it... that nearly denies Harper Lee the respect she deserves for writing it.

Rating:
Summary: Don't confuse classic with dry and tedious!
Review: I've read tons of books but somehow this one escaped me and I didn't read it until a few months ago. I read it for a book club and my first thought was, "oh great, a classic... it'll be dry and tedious and I'll feel like I'm in highschool lit class again." How wrong I was! To Kill a Mockingbird is a fascinating book that takes place in the south in the middle of the 20th century when racial issues are being brought to the forefront. The characters are likeable, the town charming and the message not one to miss. Pick this book up and read it even if you don't like to read classics.

Rating:
Summary: My book club's favorite so far
Review: When this book was chosen for our book club (made up of 12 women), we all groaned. This was the book that we DIDN'T read in high school, but instead we bought the cliffs notes and watched Gregory Peck. Too bad we were so ignorant in high school. This book has been the favorite for most of us. It is wonderful. It is an easy read and so engaging. I couldn't put it down and was a little sad when I finished it.

I think that our English programs in high school do a huge disservice to teenagers when they assign this book. Teachers tell their students that the book is about racial tension and bigotry. What student WANTS to read about that? Instead, students should be told that it is a great book about 2 siblings growing up in the south, who play during the summer and try to peek in on their reclusive neighbor (Boo). Then, when they read it, students would just naturally pick up on the racial themes throughout the book.

We all thanked the person who picked out this book for us; it was a real treat to read it as an adult.

Rating:
Summary: Innocence, maturity, understanding.
Review: This story takes place over a three-year period during the Depression era, in a small fictitious town in the Southern U.S., ripe with racial prejudice. We view things through the 8 to 11 year-old eyes of the young girl Scout Finch. After the death of their mother, Scout and her older brother Jem are raised by Atticus, their almost too perfect father. (He often reminded me of Adam Trask in Steinbeck's East of Eden). You could not ask for a better, more patient, and more understanding father than Atticus. As the town's defense lawyer he takes up the case of Tom Robinson, a Negro unjustly accused of raping a white woman.
The resulting courtroom drama shakes the previously idyllic world of his two children, especially Scout. The children raise many legal and moral questions for Atticus, and he compells them to come to their own conclusions about the case.
What is brilliant about the book is how these children have a precocious understanding of justice... their very innocence and unbiased judgement points out the true horror of racial prejudice. Sitting in the courtroom, they are able to clearly understand the TRUTH that seems to elude an entire jury of adults.
Much more can be said in praise of this book, as there are many side-stories going on at the same time as this court case is proceeding. The timeless wonder of it all is how Harper Lee dovetails all of the other incidents to leave us with a sense of the ennobling nature of childhood. Sometimes children can look upon the effects of injustice and have their own sense of "justice" strengthened, rather than diminished. It takes great empathy and inner spirit to acheive this, but, To Kill A Mockingbird shows us that it is possible.

Rating:
Summary: Awsome Book
Review: This is one of the best books I have ever read. It is well written, and is never boring. I saw the movie, just because my parents were watching it, and I loved it. I went out the next day and bought the book. Read it, see the movie, and enjoy!!