From Amazon.com...
"A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel—a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with rich humor and unswerving honesty the irrationality of adult attitudes toward race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence, and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina and quiet heroism of one man's struggle for justice—but the weight of history will only tolerate so much. "
Why I read this: I had to teach it so I guessed I had better read it.
Plot: The plot of this timeless classic, I'll admit, starts slow. My students struggled with "TKM" in the beginning; I attempted to read it several times over the summer after returning from BEA. Finally, I inter-library loaned the audio and finally I was able to get into it. Because of this, my English 9 classes listened to the entire first half of the book in class. While maybe not ideal, I think they were more able to relate to it and "get into" the novel.
Finally, towards the end of the novel, the plot picked up and my students didn't struggle as much. About this point I had a hard time getting my students to actually STOP reading so that the rest of the class could catch up and everyone would be on the same page.
Characters: Next time I teach "TKM," I will make a bookmark for my students with all the character information — many of them seemed to struggle with the characters and keeping them straight. I think my students liked Scout and Jem, but I think Atticus' character completely went over their heads because he wasn't the narrator or (seemingly) the protagonist. I don't think any of them realized the gravity of his decisions and actions.
Cover: The cover on the book that our school distributes could use some updating, I think the cover alone gives kids the wrong impression of this book.
Final Thoughts: Surprisingly, my two of my five classes hated "TKM." No matter what I did they refused to even have a classroom discussion about the novel. Even when I brought outside information in, they just refused to realize how timeless this novel is (there had been a robbery in Sioux Falls the week we finished "TKM." Three suspects tied a man up in his house and taped his mouth shut but did not blindfold him. When describing the suspects all the news broadcasters said were "three black men." The discussion was based on the fact that identifying the suspects as "black" and "men" gave the area really no important descriptions, such as height, weight, build, facial hair, tattoos, etc. As a result, any "black man" in the area was now (metaphorically) a mockingbird). I was extremely proud of the possibilities of this discussion, but in the end it failed horribly with these two classes). These two classes refused to even respect the fact that it was a "classic" and in it's 50th year of publication — talk about aggrivating!
However, the other three classes (towards the end of the novel) loved it. We not only had the aforementioned discussion, but many other discussions that they had come up with on their own. They were the students I had to slow down in order to finish the book as a class! I loved these classes and how surprised they were that a classic could be, oh I don't know, good reading! It was a fun experience to have such great classes who were willing to "hang in there" and enjoy a scholarly activity.
Originality: 10/10
Ending: 10/10
Characters: 8/10
Plot: 8/10
My reaction/enjoyment: 7/10
Theme: 9/10
Imagery: 10/10
Setting: 5/5
Voice: 5/5
Style: 4/5
Tone: 4/5
Cover: 5/10
Overall: 85/100 B
To the FTC, with love: Received at BEA 2010 and through the Library/School
