BACK TO THE CLASSICS: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

For my Pulitzer Prize winner for the Back to the Classics Challenge, I chose To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I don't know why this book did not end up on some assigned reading list during the course of my education. I’m not sure why I haven’t read it before now. I’ve certainly had it on my TBR list for quite some time. My daughter read it in school a couple years ago. Then, my son read it this fall. I knew the time had come. Luckily, I had the challenge for even more motivation. And my efforts were well rewarded!

But what is there left to say about this book in a review?

Scout Finch, a wide-eyed innocent 8-year-old girl, is growing up in depression era Maycomb, Alabama alongside her 12-year-old brother Jem. Her life consists of "running wild" with Jem, reading with her father, Atticus, a lawyer, and taking note of the goings-on in her world. To her frustration, she is unable to observe her reclusive neighbor, Boo Radley, about whom all sorts of bizarre, entertaining, and frightening rumors have sprung up. When Scout’s father is appointed to defend Tom Robinson, a black man, accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white woman from the wrong side of the Maycomb tracks, Scout is introduced to the prejudice and injustice in her town. Her eyes are opened and her innocence destroyed. But the trial opens other eyes in Maycomb too, so some good comes out of all the awfulness.

This book really does deserve all the accolades it has received over the years. It’s heartbreaking and hopeful at the same time. Moreover, the book is timeless. These are lessons we need to hear over and over again.