description: "When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.... When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident. I maintain that the Ewells started it all, but Jem, who was four years my senior, said it started long before that. He said it began the summer Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out." Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus--three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman. Though her story explores big themes, Harper Lee chooses to tell it through the eyes of a child. The result is a tough and tender novel of race, class, justice, and the pain of growing up.  Like the slow-moving occupants of her fictional town, Lee takes her time getting to the heart of her tale; we first meet the Finches the summer before Scout's first year at school. She, her brother, and Dill Harris, a boy who spends the summers with his aunt in Maycomb, while away the hours reenacting scenes from Dracula and plotting ways to get a peek at the town bogeyman, Boo Radley. At first the circumstances surrounding the alleged rape of Mayella Ewell, the daughter of a drunk and violent white farmer, barely penetrate the children's consciousness. Then Atticus is called on to defend the accused, Tom Robinson, and soon Scout and Jem find themselves caught up in events beyond their understanding. During the trial, the town exhibits its ugly side, but Lee offers plenty of counterbalance as well--in the struggle of an elderly woman to overcome her morphine habit before she dies; in the heroism of Atticus Finch, standing up for what he knows is right; and finally in Scout's hard-won understanding that most people are essentially kind "when you really see them." By turns funny, wise, and heartbreaking, To Kill a Mockingbird is one classic that continues to speak to new generations, and deserves to be reread often. --Alix Wilber
language: English
title: To Kill a Mockingbird
titlecomplete: To Kill a Mockingbird
characters: Atticus Finch (The Sanibel Sunset Detective Returns), Scout Finch, Bob Ewell, Aunt Alexandra, Stephanie Crawford, Miss Maudie Atkinson, Arthur Radley, Jem Finch, Mayella Ewell, Judge John Taylor, Heck Tate, Tom Robinson, Dill Harris, Calpurnia (housekeeper)
genres: Fiction, Historical, School, Young Adult, Literature, Read For School, Classics, Novels, High School, Historical Fiction
ratings_count: 5844866
places: Alabama, Maycomb, Alabama
series: To Kill a Mockingbird
awards: awardedAt: -283968000000
name: Pulitzer Prize
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 1167638400000
name: Audie Award
category: Classic, awardedAt: 1167638400000
name: The Quill Award
category: Audio Book, awardedAt: -283968000000
name: National Book Award Finalist
category: Fiction, awardedAt: -283968000000
name: Alabama Author Award
category: Fiction
publisher: Audio Partners