A new favorite

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

For many this book is among required reading usually in high school. Somehow I had avoided reading it until it was highly recommended by my book club.

Once I started I couldn’t put it down. I finished in about a week. The style is similar to Huck Finn, but with a female protagonist.

Scout is growing up in the South, when blacks aren’t really slaves anymore but are still segregated. Some people, like her father, consider blacks as human and equal. Others still view them as separate and unequal.

Since Scout’s mother died, her father allows her to figure out life in her own way—traipsing around in overalls, instead of dresses, with her brother Jem. Aunt Alexandra wants to teach Scout to be a lady, but to do so goes against Scout’s dad’s philosophy of life.

In some ways, Harper Lee expresses some rather forward thinking. However some parents may not want their children reading about rape, though I think it was dealt with tactfully.


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