Need to Read: To Kill a Mockingbird

I make a point of reading this book every couple of years just to remind myself to see the world the way Scout Finch sees it, with unfailing curiosity. Every child should be like that little tomboy.

  To Kill a Mockingbird is a story set in a Maycomb, Alabama during three years of the Great Depression. Scout, the daughter of the town's favored lawyer Atticus Finch, passes time with her brother, Jim,  and their friend Dill by fantasizing about the Radley house right next to theirs. Dark rumors surround the house, whispered behind closed screens and  translated into haunting stories by Maycomb's children. The infamous and possibly dangerous, Boo Radley is said to still be alive, holed up in the old house for unknown reasons. Scout, Jim, and Dill, all particularly imaginative, swap theories of why he never leaves the house and ways they could lure him out. They come to realize that Boo isn't just a legend or myth, but an interesting character behind the screen door.

Trouble arises for the Finch family when Atticus is chosen to represent ,Tom Robinson, a black man accused of rape, in court. To Maycomb's disgruntlement, Atticus chooses to represent Robinson with the best of his ability. He takes a stand against Southern old-ways and believes Tom to be as equally deserving of justice as the next Maycomb citizen. Scout and Jim are teased because of their father's forward thinking, but stand beside him believing he is acting honorably. Pressures build as one lawyer and his two children try to change a whole town's way of thinking. Scout and Jim wonder: We're free arent' we? Aren't all of us? To Kill a Mockingbird challenges racial epithets with the charm of a young girl's voice in blind Southern town.

"So it took an eight-year-old child to bring 'em to their senses.... That proves something - that a gang of wild animals can be stopped, simply because they're still human.  Hmp, maybe we need a police force of children. "


Scout and Jim hardly realize that they are closely tied to history in the sweating, charged courtroom or that danger awaits them as soon as they leave it.

Harper Lee received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award a civilian can earn, from the hands of President George W. Bush in 2007.

So this book is so awesome the United States recognizes it's paramount transcendence with a shiny plaque. That's huge!

Soldiers get medals from the president! For an author to get one.... wow... just wow!

So if you haven't read this book yet, I won't judge, just promise me that you will soon. It's in the book section of Walmart for like $6. You have no excuse.