Atticus and Scout

To Kill a Mockingbird is a story about a young girl growing up in a small town in the South the 1930's.  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.  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.