Product Description

The explosion of racial hate in an Alabama town is viewed by a little girl whose father defends a black man accused of rape.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1712 in Books
• Published on: 1988-10-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 281 pages

Amazon.com Review
"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

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Lee's beloved American classics makes its belated debut on audio (after briefly being available in the 1990s for the blind and libraries through Books on Tape) with the kind of classy packaging that may spoil listeners for all other audiobooks. The two CD slipcases housing the 11 discs not only feature art mirroring Mary Schuck's cover design but also offers helpful track listings for each disk. Many viewers of the 1962 movie adaptation believe that Lee was the film's narrator, but it was actually an unbilled Kim Stanley who read a mere six passages and left an indelible impression. Competing with Stanley's memory, Spacek forges her own path to a victorious reading. Spacek reads with a slight Southern lilt and quiet authority. Told entirely from the perspective of young Scout Finch, there's no need for Spacek to create individual voices for various characters but she still invests them all with emotion. Lee's Pulitzer Prize–winning 1960 novel, which quietly stands as one of the most powerful statements of the Civil Rights movement, has been superbly brought to audio. Available as a Perennial paperback. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Library Journal
Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning first (and last) novel of racial injustice in a small Southern town ranks among just about everyone's favorite books. This 35th-anniversary edition contains a brief new foreword by the elusive Lee. (LJ
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

A Must Read for all Readers and Non-Readers
This book captivates the mind with its wonderful adventures and adorable characters. Seeing the world through the eyes of an eight year old may sound dumb, and not a great way to spend you time. On the contrary, the memories that you had as a chold growing up emerge from a long sleep and you start to remember your adventure. Remember the haunted mansion down the street? the old man who murdered his wife? Well, this story talks about those stories, and more. It talks about matters that even most adults don't approach in the modern world. The setting is in the depths of the Great Depression, and it takes place in little Maycomb County, Alabama. The story weaves in and out of race, caste systems, and everyday life alongside fun in an "in-depth" story. This book has much more depth than when first read. Many chapters that seem random aren't that strange for they all have a meaning. I personally loved this book. I read it at school and it brought so much fun while reading it. It also brought the thrill of watching a trial through the eyes of a child. We as the readers are made to think in this book, but not so much that it's hard. Because our lives have progressed so much we see that her world is very different from ours right now. But similarities are still there. A couple of chapters in this book represent how even though something looks like it has been uprooted from our world (ex: racism), to get it to go away, you have to dig it up from it's roots. One major theme in this story is Roots and History. It even has a little tale of puppy love! (Remember those first crushes?). I realize that I make it sound bad, but that is because in class we do tend to overthink everything. That's why if you're an intellectual reader or just someone who likes books or to pass time, no matter what genre you like, this book will appeal to you. Buy this book or borrow it from a library or a friend and read it, because it will touch your heart as a great book and warm your heart as a human being. The movie though... Well, that's another story.

Stop What You're Doing And Read This!
If you haven't read this book yet, stop whatever it is that you're doing, go immediately to a book store, and pick this up. To Kill a Mockingbird is among the best books I've ever read.

For those that haven't read this, or haven't seen the film version with Gregory Peck, which is also outstanding, To Kill a Mockingbird is about the Finch family. Atticus Finch is a lawyer and widower in a small Alabama town during the Great Depression. He has two children: Jem, an 11-year old boy, and Scout, an 8-year old girl. Their lives are turned upside down when Atticus is appointed to represent Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman. The story is told from Scout's perspective.

While the story is framed around social and racial issues in the South, it's really about much more than that: primarily, it's a story about growing up. The Robinson case makes the transitions that Jem and Scout go through much more dramatic, but they experience the same kind of wonder and confusion that all of us experience as we move from childhood to young adulthood.

Atticus is exactly the kind of person we aspire to be: honest, caring, understanding, moral, and unflappable. You sort of get the impression of Atticus as the last righteous man. Atticus lives his philosophy: "The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience" (p. 120). In short, Atticus is the emodiment of human dignity--not just for himself, but for others too. If you aren't moved by his closing argument in the Robinson trial, you may be in a coma.

I thought it was odd, and somewhat revealing hearing the kids, especially Scout, describe their father: "Atticus was feeble: he was nearly fifty. When Jem and I asked him why he was so old, he said he got started late, which we felt reflected upon his abilities and manliness....Our father didn't do anything. He worked in an office, not in a drugstore. Atticus didn't drive a dump truck for the county, he was not the sheriff, he did not farm, work in a garage, or do anything that could possibly arouse the admiration of anyone." Ouch. But this is Scout with a child's perspective; her growing maturity changes the way both she and Jem see their father.

Harper Lee never wrote another novel; she grew up with and remained a close friend of Truman Capote's until his death. Harper Lee and Gregory Peck also remained close friends until his demise; Peck's grandson was named Harper in her honor.

To Kill a Mockingbird won the Pulitzer Prize for a reason: it's a masterpiece. Its warmth, compassion, comedy, and tragedy are rendered with such humanity that it honestly blew me away. I can't recommend it enough. Read it today.

So very boring
The only reason this book deserves one star is that something interesting actually happened,albeit AT THE END OF THE FRIGGIN' BOOK!
I swear watching Teletubbies or mold grow in your shower is more interesting than this book.I could not get through half of it.
Nothing even goes on until the very end.By then though,you have given up as did I.
I agree that the book has a good plot but, how the plot is written is an entirely different story.One reviewer on here said that it sounded like it was written by a fifth grader.I wholeheartedly agree.I will never pick up this book again.