![]() If you ever wondered why Lee never published another book (and, really, who hasn’t wondered that?) this is the book for you. Even though I have probably read To Kill a Mockingbird a half dozen times or more, I’d never read anything about Lee’s life and I was interested. Shield’s student-friendly autobiography of Harper Lee ( adapted by Shields from his book, Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee) just before my students and I began our discussion of To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s an English teacher’s dream book, but it’s not without its problems – especially when you teach a generation of students who mostly read about sparkly vampires and cuddly werewolves. Although the action of the story takes place when Scout and her brother are children, the story is narrated from an adult’s vantage point which is how Scout is able to make some very worldly observations about society, childhood, prejudice and evil – all of which are themes in the book. Narrated by Scout, the story takes place in Maycomb, Alabama in 1935. ![]() In case you’ve been living under a rock, To Kill a Mockingbird is the story of Jean Louise (Scout) and Jem Finch and their father, Atticus, a small-town lawyer. ![]() ![]() I love the book, but even I can see how today’s teens might struggle with it. Published in 1960, Harper Lee’s only book won the Pulitzer Prize and was made into a movie starring Gregory Peck. It’s pretty much a rite of passage that every teenager reads To Kill a Mockingbird at some point during their high school career. ![]()
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