June 2021 First in a Series BOTM - To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

[Alaina]

The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it. "To Kill A Mockingbird" became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic.

Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, "To Kill A Mockingbird" takes readers to the roots of human behavior - to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos. Now with over 18 million copies in print and translated into forty languages, this regional story by a young Alabama woman claims universal appeal. Harper Lee always considered her book to be a simple love story. Today it is regarded as a masterpiece of American literature.

**This BOTM thread will be open until July 5th @ Midnight (in your time zone)**

[Aly]

Somebody better actually read this lol

[Alaina]

LMAO

[Caroline]

Lmao, I just started it

[Caroline]

Ch 7 (view spoiler)[I read this for school when I was a kid, but I don't remember a thing about it. I think I liked it.

I laughed at the image of Dill ringing the bell in Atticus's face. I guess their plan didn't work out so well.

I really didn't think they were in any danger at the Radley house. I figured they were exaggerating. But they got a shotgun fired at them! I guess they better start leaving well enough alone. (hide spoiler)]

[Celia]

Aly wrote: "Somebody better actually read this lol"

Starting today probably.

[Caroline]

Ch 14 (view spoiler)[It's kind of weird how you can already tell the Tom Robinson case is a central conflict of the book, but at the same time we haven't really been given much detail about it. (hide spoiler)]

[Celia]

31% (view spoiler)[I forgot how engrossing this was. I feel like if it hadn't ever been so hyped it would be a definite favorite of mine, but it's hard to say anything I read in school is a true favorite.

I know it was a different time, but the school scenes made me mad. As an elementary education student who spent the last few months learning about differentiation and the last year learning about learning theories from a few different directions, it was hard for me to read the part about the teacher, as well as the parts about the students who were held back. (hide spoiler)]

Caroline wrote: "Ch 14 [spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[I like how there are so many stories tied up into this one thing. The main story might be about the case, but there's so much more to this story. I took a lot of notes in the book when I read this for school almost six years ago, and I considered a lot of the characters really judgmental. It turns out, I was as well, in terms of the ignorance that people and especially children have trouble getting rid of. (hide spoiler)]

[Caroline]

Ch 21 (view spoiler)[It was kind of strange how the story suddenly changed from telling every random thing that happened to Scout, and suddenly it was just totally focused on the trial. It feels almost like chapters 1-14 and 15-21 were from different books, (hide spoiler)]

[Caroline]

Finished!
(view spoiler)[Nice how Boo Radley made his appearance in the end. I liked how Scout regretted the way she treated him when she was younger, and how she felt bad she couldn't give him anything in return for how he helped her. (hide spoiler)]

[Celia]

55% (view spoiler)[I'd forgotten about a lot of the middle part. I think, knowing what's coming, that the part where they to to the black church really does set up for a lot of the rest of the story.

I remembered Scout had done something in the face of everyone, but I couldn't remember what. I think I understood better the significance of that scene. It makes more sense to me now how she was able to calm down the mob, by talking to Mr. Cunningham about his son. It made him realize that they were just kids, and that to a large extent they all wanted the same thing, for their kids to be safe. I don't remember picking up on this in this way when I was fourteen. (hide spoiler)]

[Celia]

85% (view spoiler)[I told myself I was going to stop reading for the night when they killed Tom Robinson, but I had thought that was a lot sooner than it was. I had also remembered that it had something to do with the Ewells rather than Tom trying to escape, and I had thought it happened in between a two-day trial. It's strange, the way the mind plays tricks on you that way when you remember things differently. (hide spoiler)]

[Caroline]

Celia wrote: "55% [spoilers removed]

(view spoiler)[I think Scout also reminded Mr Cunningham that he owed Atticus something. Bringing up entailment reminded him of Atticus helping with his legal problems at the beginning of the book, and Mr. Cunningham wasn't able to pay with money.

I can't remember, but I feel like I also might not have understood this the first time I read it. It's interesting how getting older changes your perspective. (hide spoiler)]

[Celia]

Caroline wrote: "Celia wrote: "55% [spoilers removed]

I agree. (view spoiler)[There's so much of a difference that a few years makes if you first read this in high school, and that is a really good point about different kinds of entailments and what that means. I think it connects back to realizations about family and everything. (hide spoiler)]

FINISHED (view spoiler)[There is really so much that I didn't understand the first time I read this, and after the last four years this reads somewhat differently than it did my freshman year of high school. Glad I got a chance to come back to this! (hide spoiler)]