To Kill a Mockingbird is a story about a young girl growing up in a small town called Maycomb Alabama the 1930's. First it was a very popular book by Harper Lee in 1960. It also became an award winning film starring Gregory Peck in 1963, adding momentum to a National conversation about race, class and the American Civil Rights Movement.
Jean Louise Finch is the narrator and central character of the story. Everyone calls her Scout. The story begins when Scout is 6 years old but she tells us the story as an adult looking back on her childhood.
Scout lives with her brother Jem and their father Atticus, a single father. By the end of the story, Scout is 9 years old and she has learned a lot about life and relationships in their small town.
Scout is a tomboy who prefers the company of boys and doesn't care for dresses or school. She is strong-willed, quick to anger and gets into fights. She is also smart, observant and curious, though. She learns from her father and their neighbors and the events in the story, some of which are frightening, difficult for Scout to understand and disturbing for the reader.
Scout loved her father, Atticus and learned to read from him. When she started to attend school, her teacher criticized her reading and told her that her father was teaching her all wrong. She became afraid that she would no longer be able to read with Atticus.
In this scene Atticus comforts her. He tells her they can compromise. He agrees to continue reading to her every night if she would go back to school and do as her teacher tells her.
Because this story is narrated by an adult woman about her life as a young girl, this story is a good way to reflect on childhood as an adult. Through Scout's eyes, we learn a lot about race, racism and justice in the American South in the early 20th Century. But we can also appreciate even more universal themes of growing up, education, gender, fear, courage and character. It is a good way to initiate a conversation about a close and meaningful childhood relationship with a sibling or a mother, father or other trusted adult.
This story in particular can be used reflect on the importance of reading. Think about how you learned to read and time you spent reading or learning something else from a family member or teacher when you were a child. You can also use it to think about going to school the first time or something you learned about conflict and compromise.
