To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

The BBC?s Big Read Top 21 featured some real heavyweights of the literary world. With a real shot in the arm for the reading fraternity, a number of books have come back into fashion, one of which is the Pulitzer prize winning ?To Kill A Mocking Bird?. The front cover of the paperback proclaims that over 30 million copies have been sold world-wide. This might seem a little intimidating especially when coupled with reputedly one of the finest screen adaptations of any book made with the legendary Gregory Peck in the lead role. To review a book of this magnitude, it would be remiss of me ...  Read the complete review

I originally read this book when I was 16, for my GCSE set examination text. Remembering how much I enjoyed it back then, I chucked it into my latest Amazon.co.uk order so that I could read it again. PLOT SYNOPSIS The novel essentially begins at the end. To explain it a little better ? the narrator, Scout Finch, explaining the circumstances around which her brother Jem had broken his arm. Scout narrates the whole book from her point of view. The story is set in the 1930s in a small American town called Maycomb ...  Read the complete review

Hmm... Let's see, what elements are crucial in creating a good book? The answer to this question may be different to some people, but for me? I look for an intriguing plot, well-developed characters, nice writing style, and a theme of some sort. Sounds like a good enough answer, right? Anyway, what I'm here to say is that To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, has all the key elements that make a book excellent . Book Stats Title: To Kill a Mockingbird Author: Harper Lee Pages: 281 Copyright 1960 ISBN 0-446-31078-6 Characters All the characters in To Kill a Mockingbird are realistic and round, it's ...  Read the complete review

There are some strange books. Strange, not in the weird sense of the word – but strange, as in strangely fascinating. Books that make you want to be there; hovering in the background, watching. Perhaps that’s what you do when you read anyway though, if you can imagine the story well enough. But there’s some which are worse than that – they drag you in, and make you involved. Books written in the first person do that the best, which is perhaps why To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is such a fascinating story. The thing is, there’s a problem. I read in accents. I can’t help it – I don’t know if it’s just ...  Read the complete review

Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” is a breathtaking tale, which focuses on the lives of two children living in a small community plagued by racial prejudice, class distinction and ubiquitous gossip. Despite these ominous and gloomy themes, it is actually an extremely uplifting story and has gained the accolade of being a modern classic, which it genuinely deserves. In fact, the only fault with “To Kill a Mockingbird” is its inclusion on many GCSE English Literature and Language syllabuses: to have students dissect this novel is somewhat of a crime! There is an obvious value in educating youngsters in the tolerance it teaches, ...  Read the complete review