To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee
Classics, Fiction, Historical-Fiction, School, Literature, Young-Adult, Historical
The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it. To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic. Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior – to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos. Now with over 18 million copies in print and translated into forty languages, this regional story by a young Alabama woman claims universal appeal. Harper Lee always considered her book to be a simple love story. Today it is regarded as a masterpiece of American literature.
Recommendations from Common Sense Media
Age Recommendation: 12+
What Parents Need to Know:
Parents need to know that Harper Lee‘s 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird addresses the terrible impact of racism in America through a little girl’s point of view. The story takes place in Depression-era Alabama, in the fictional town of Maycomb, which Lee patterned after her own hometown of Monroeville. The narrator, 6-year-old Scout Finch, and her brother Jem and their friend Dill play children’s games, but they also have a clear view of the adults in their world. Their youth and innocence contrasts with the prejudice, cruelty, and poverty they often observe. There’s some threatened and real violence in this Pulitzer Prize winner: A man breaks a child’s arm; a rabid dog is shot and killed; there is a stabbing death; the children and their father, Atticus Finch, confront a lynch mob; and the court case at the center of the novel involves a Black man who’s been accused of raping and beating a white woman. Some of this violence is whiskey-fueled, as well. Profanity includes “damn,” “bastard,” and “son-of-a-bitch.” The “N” word and “(‘N’-word)-lover” is used liberally by some residents of Maycomb as if it’s perfectly commonplace, and by others as a weapon. The children in the novel learn powerful lessons about the impact of poverty and prejudice, and the importance of empathy, and so will those who read this classic. The 1962 film version starring Gregory Peck is one of those rare films that truly does justice to the original book. The audiobook read by Sissy Spacek is also note-perfect.
Educational Value: 4/5
Author Harper Lee offers a snapshot of small-town life in Alabama during the 1930s, including views about race and some information about events taking place in Europe leading up to world War II. Readers will also learn about 1930s gender roles, education, and divisions created by economic status.
Positive Messages: 5/5
Atticus Finch tells Scout, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view — until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”
Positive Role Models: 4/5
Atticus Finch, Jem and Scout’s father, courageously defends Tom Robinson in a town where racial prejudice is firmly entrenched. He risks not only public disapproval but also his own safety to make sure Tom receives as fair a trial as possible. He imparts many lessons to his children verbally, but his actions speak loudest, teaching them empathy, and to judge people by their actions rather than by the color of their skin.
Violence & Scariness: 3/5
A drunk breaks a kid’s arm. A man is killed with a knife. Atticus and his children face down a lynch mob in the middle of the night. Town gossip includes a story about a man stabbing a family member with scissors. A rabid dog is shot in the street. The trial at the center of the story involves a man accused of raping and beating a woman. A prisoner is shot trying to escape.
Sex, Romance & Nudity: n/a
n/a
Language: 2/5
Frequent use of “damn,” one “bastard,” and one “son-of-a-bitch.” The “N” word and “(‘N’-word)-lover” is used liberally by some residents of Maycomb as if it’s perfectly commonplace, and by others as a weapon.
Products & Purchases: 1/5
Mr. Raymond drinks Coke (though others think it’s liquor) and gives some to Dill. Jem eats a Tootsie Roll.
Drinking, Drugs & Smoking: 1/5
Mrs. Dubose is secretly addicted to morphine. A man named Dolphus Raymond is believed to be the town drunk, because he drinks something hidden in a paper bag, but it turns out to be a bottle of Coca-Cola. Bob Ewell is said to spend his relief checks on green whiskey, letting his children go hungry. Scout smells stale whiskey on a man’s breath.
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