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To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird

Amazon.com Review

"When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.... When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident. I maintain that the Ewells started it all, but Jem, who was four years my senior, said it started long before that. He said it began the summer Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out." Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus--three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman. Though her story explores big themes, Harper Lee chooses to tell it through the eyes of a child. The result is a tough and tender novel of race, class, justice, and the pain of growing up. Like the slow-moving occupants of her fictional town, Lee takes her time getting to the heart of her tale; we first meet the Finches the summer before Scout's first year at school. She, her brother, and Dill Harris, a boy who spends the summers with his aunt in Maycomb, while away the hours reenacting scenes from Dracula and plotting ways to get a peek at the town bogeyman, Boo Radley. At first the circumstances surrounding the alleged rape of Mayella Ewell, the daughter of a drunk and violent white farmer, barely penetrate the children's consciousness. Then Atticus is called on to defend the accused, Tom Robinson, and soon Scout and Jem find themselves caught up in events beyond their understanding. During the trial, the town exhibits its ugly side, but Lee offers plenty of counterbalance as well--in the struggle of an elderly woman to overcome her morphine habit before she dies; in the heroism of Atticus Finch, standing up for what he knows is right; and finally in Scout's hard-won understanding that most people are essentially kind "when you really see them." By turns funny, wise, and heartbreaking, To Kill a Mockingbird is one classic that continues to speak to new generations, and deserves to be reread often. --Alix Wilber

Product Details

  • Author: Harper Lee
  • Publication Date: 2002-03
  • Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
  • Product Group: Book
  • Manufacturer: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
  • Binding: Paperback, 336 pages
  • Features:
    • ISBN13: 9780060935467
    • Condition: NEW
    • Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
  • Package Dimensions:
    • Dimensions: 790L x 520W x 90H
    • Weight: 65
  • List Price: $12.95
  • ISBN: 0060935464
  • ASIN: 0060935464

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Customer Reviews

Average Amazon User Rating: 4.5 stars

5 stars To Kill a Mockingbird 2010-03-03

Reviewer: Visa

The book was fantastic much better than the movie that I saw many years ago.

5 stars Wrong Item 2010-03-02

Reviewer: D. Randall

Great book. Hastings sent me the wrong one though. But they gave me a full refund and let me keep the other book. So they did a good job eventually.

5 stars Deep 2010-03-01

Reviewer: Aidan Dennis

To Kill a Mockingbird is a timeless book that won the Pulitzer prize for literary fiction in 1961. First of all, it's an incredibly engrossing story that sucks you right in and brings the characters and events to life. The book is deep because it digs into really intense issues like prejudice and injustice, and gets right to the heart of the matter and the fundamental flaws in people's thinking that perpetuate injustice and the irrational fear of other groups.

The story centers around Scout Finch, who is the narrator. Scout and her family live in Maycomb County, Alabama in a time of tension and extreme prejudice. The story follows Scout from home to school and the courtroom where her father works. An African American man is wrongly accused of a horrific crime, and the town becomes conflicted. Tempers flare and neighbors show their true colors until, ultimately, a real change is made.

5 stars To Kill a Mocking Bird 2010-02-27

Reviewer: Deborah A. Chaidez

Searching and ordering this book was made very easily, I had a wide variety to choose from. The cost was very inexpensive especially that I needed to order 3 books at one time. I received my order sooner than expected and in excellent condition. My daughter loves this book!

5 stars Boo Radley rules 2010-02-21

Reviewer: Heather Crozier

This story is a classic because it continues to resonate with its readers/watchers no matter what decade or century one lives in.

I first read Harper Lee's novel in my ninth grade English class. It had a profound effect upon me. Growing up in Utah where everyone was pretty White I hadn't really thought about racism, I mean, I knew it existed, but I'd never been exposed to it either personally or in literature. So when I read this novel it allowed me to enter that world where it exists (I know it exists everywhere), but where it actually brought me into a world that dealt with it culturally as part of daily life. I remember while reading how appalled I was at the ignorance and hatefulness of these characters. I remember feeling akin to Scout and her brother and friend during their summer excursions and wondering who Boo was. I remember feeling injustice and sorrow and a desire to do my part to make the world better.

So once again I feel a classic is a story that gets me thinking about the world, my own prejudices and how I am pulled out of my comfort zone. To Kill a Mockingbird is just such a story. It is beautifully told through the eyes of a small girl and allowed me to see the events in a different view.

I was very surprised that this movie came out in 1962 since the Civil Rights Movement was still in its infancy. All of the actors did a superb job, especially Gregory Peck as Atticus and Robert Duvall as Boo Radley. The book is usually better, but I still felt the impact of the story in movie form. Thus, both have impacted me and continue to do so each and every time I read/watch this beautiful and poignant story.

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