To Kill a Mockingbird question

The thing about To Kill a Mockingbird is that it is filled with imagery from a time that doesn't exist anymore ... the "small town" American setting is basically gone - over-run with the Internet, television, and meth labs ... what is so beautiful is that this book is written from truth -- the woman who wrote it was semi-fictionalizing her own life ... Addicus is based on her own father (she gave her father's watch to Gregory Peck for doing such an amazing portrayal in the movie, btw).

At your age, what you should look for is three things:

1) see how real the characters are -- can you see them in your mind, can you guess how they'd react to an emergency, or a fight? Which ones do you like as people, which ones don't you like?

2) see how much of the town and settings you can see in your mind's eye ... is it rich and alive, or flat and meaningless?

3) see how the people in the story feel about each other -- can you sense who respects whom, and who is openly fearful? Can you sense love and admiration anywhere - can you sense strength and quiet being respected anywhere?

Ultimately, this book is a classic because it resonates about emotions, personal growth, and becoming more aware of the world around you -- this is why younger people like you enjoy the book ... because it is about the most serious topics through the eyes of an intelligent young person who is treated with intellectual openness by her own father -- it's really a secret investigation into some very serious topics, presented as a series of discoveries -- all symbolically wrapped up in a personal relationship that grows first through fear, then fascination, into epiphany.

Go ahead and finish it -- but don't read it in a "should" frame of mind ... read it as an adventure for your own mind -- enter into that place, see the people, smell the smells, realize that EVERY adult is speaking to YOU openly about their own feelings ... see if you can find the relationships and social standing of the people ... and finally, once you're finished, point those same eyes at the world around you and see if you haven't been changed a bit ;)

I don't know, it's up to you, but I'd recommend finishing it.
If you really hate it, then go ahead and put it aside and read something you enjoy. But please try not to write it off in the future. It will probably be a lot more appealing to you when you're older.

Absolutely worth it!!! I read it when when I was about 12 and it was on the best seller list. It is beautifully written! I reread it very couple of years and I never get tired of it. My granddaugher is reading it now as a high school freshman and she loves it too.

I would say, not now. It's an awesome book and it has quite a good message but I believe you're a little bit too young to comprehend the complexity and at the same time the simplicity in it; the thing is that what you need to be able to truly get this book is some more experience in life... and besides, one of the reasons I think you shouldn't finish it now is that maybe, if you find it boring now and you push yourself to finish it (just for the sake of it) you will end up hating this book, and that would be a bad decision.

So... my advice is: leave it now, wait until you're let's say... fifteen or maybe seventeen, and when you read it for real it will not be boring for you, it will change your perspective of life :)

Personally I think that 11 is a little young to read it but hey! what do i know, i read it and loved it but I am 15

To Kill a Mockingbird really is something you should read, especially at eleven. I read it as an adult, and while I'm glad that I did, it just didn't live up to the expectations that I had set for it. Don't give up on any book, ever. You will be glad, in the end, that you finished it.

You're young and still have time to change your opinion of it. I'm 23 and I read it a couple of months ago and it has so much more meaning to me than if I had read it when I was much younger. You're only eleven and so if you feel like it bores you just keep it away and reread it when you're much older. You will find it more enthralling.

YES! Scout & Boo (& Huck Finn) are some of my FAVORITEST.BOOK.CHARACTERS.EVER!! You'll probably appreciate "Mockingbird" the older you get & the more you read it but please don't ever give up. So worth it :)

It's definitely worthwhile to read! It may come off as bland at first but when you get to the middle of the novel you'll love it to bits!

You may not be ready for it at eleven. Wait a few years. It is worth it. Don't hate it now so that you never read it. Save it for later. I read it at sixteen. I loved it then and I re-read it every few years. My son's middle name is Atticus. I had a dog named Scout. It is obviously very special to me.

I read this book when I was 10 and absolutly loved it. It's a beautiful book and you should read it. Besides since you're only 11 there is a good chance this will come up on your reading list for class in the future

To Kill a Mocking Bird is a really good book, i read it when i was in year 10, i think it may be harder to understand at eleven though. I was 15 when i read it.
Still if you don't want to finish it now, defenitly read it when your older.

The thing about this book is that you have to finish it to really enjoy it. I read it in school and it was really boring at the beginning but it is completely worth finishing!

Definitely worth it. You have to understand all the symbolism to get the real meaning of it.

I am 33 and read it 4 months ago, for the first time. I was shocked at how much I loved the book. I know I will re-read it . Atticus Finch is one of the main characters in book. He is my favorite character out of any book. He is such a wonderful man and role model. In my opinion, the book demonstrates how people should treat others(Atticus and his children). I recommend it to everyone I know. I think you should read it, but you might appreciate it more when you're older. I do think it should be a required read in all schools.

is to kill a mockingbird really worth it?

YES

it is the kind of book, story that you'll re-read over and over...i know because i have.....
this very much reminded of my own childhood days.

excellent excellent Must read. period.

This is a difficult book, but I hope you keep going. If you do, I hope you will love it as much as I do. If you find even one book that can change the way you think, you will be a fortunate person. For me, this was that book. Let us know if you finish and what you think.

When you finish the book, it's a bittersweet sensation. Some of the characters have happy endings, others not so much. Even though there's much sadness in the book, the way it ends is perfect. If you don't read to the end, I don't think you can fully appreciate the entire story.

I thought the best part of the book was the childhood adventure stuff in the beginning. However, the movie did a much better job with the courtroom matters, etc. For what it's worth, that first half of the book is pure gold.

Really good book. I liked it, it read like a for-fun book (I read it in school) so it's good for younger audiences but the metaphors and important themes are present that would be easier to appreciate and understand at an older age.

You should keep reading it!

No, I'm eleven too, and it's just really boring in the beginning. It gets interesting in the 15th chapter.

I love this book! It is definitely worth it! But I can understand it not being interesting to someone who's only eleven. I'm seventeen.

im eleven

Stick with it because Scout is even younger than you. What did you think of the classroom scene?

It depends on who is reading it and what kind of books they are interested in . I love it and to me it is worth it......

My suggestion is to keep reading it. I was in high school when I read it for the first time, but it's been one of my favorite books ever since.

It's really a great book. It's got tons of wonderful symbols and just overall a good read. It wasn't one of my favorites, and I only had to read it for school - but I still enjoyed it. It's a cute little tale with a heavy plot.
It is a tad slow in the beginning, it speeds up by the second half.
Hope this helps!

I thought it was a boring book before I even picked it up but the book gets interesting farther on! So don't lose hope yet :)

I was ten or eleven when I first read To Kill A Mockingbird & it quickly became my favorite book. I've now read it upward of ten times and still find myself needing to read it every now and then. If it's a bit tough to get through then take a break and come back to it later, but certainly don't write it off. If you're up to it, finish it now...I promise the ending makes any difficult bits worthwhile and ties it all together in such a way that you really don't want it to be over.

It is one of those books that you will think about later (for years).

I read it the ninth grade and i still find it really boring but i know people who liked it

I first read it when I was about eleven (I also read it in class last year for an assignment) but I loved it both times. It seems better the second time you read it, maybe, because you could understand it more? I don't know, that's just my opinion. So yeah, keep reading.

Hilary wrote: "I am eleven yrs old and I started to kill a mocking bird last month and I am only on chpt. eleven so should I just put it down or keep on going?"
My goodness yes. I loved this book!

Hello,
To kill a MockingBird came out when I was 16 or 17 years old in the late sixties(yeah, I'm really old :D)My folks, who raised me, were reaching adulthood in the Depression,so I heard the view-points expressed by some of the townspeople.
It's still one of the three books I've ever re-read,cover to cover. One of the really neat things about it, is that Scout ,the narrator, is eight years old. I think its' hard to appreciate how you think at eight years old is so different than the way you think at age eleven. When you hit your teens and start questioning the adults in your life more (sigh) you can understand Scout on a different level than you can right now.
Would I suggest you keep reading it? Definitely yes. Other than Shades of Gray and other novels of its' kind, I'd probably encourage you to read anything you wanted. Please, just try re-reading this book in your middle teens.Scout will be so more touching to you, when you remember how you used to think. And yeah, I think it is slow moving in the beginning.The action doesn't really kick in untill later.Unless you were lucky, or maybe unlucky enough ,to have a grandpa or grandma (probably great..:D) who lived through the Depression,Harper's description of what life was like then does seem dull.Give yourself a few years, and re-read it again. I'm betting you'll be just as enthusiastic as the rest of us!

Wow, I'm glad that such young readers are reading this. I think it's a fantastic book. But, as an "old guy" now, I'd say read it again some years from now to see how much differently it affects you.

To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic, it is a book you will remember for the rest of your life. Maybe being 11 that is hard to imagine now but it's a good read!