Over the next 8 days I will be playing catch up for National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). I’ve been doing a lot and never got a chance to finish my posts so I could publish them. In order to get caught up, I’ll be posting two a day starting today with Day 9 and Day 1.
Title: To Kill a Mockingbird
Author: Harper Lee
Genre:Â Coming-of-age story | Social Drama | Courtroom Drama | Southern Drama
Publication Date: 1960
[First Read] | [Reread]
Summary:
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.
Why I want to Read It:
This is a reread. I love this book. It’s heart-breaking and has some humorous scenes, but what I really love about the novel is how Lee told the story of not judging a book by its cover, race, injustice, and social inequality from the eyes of a child, which a very adult themes. Lee handles them so beautifully and eloquently
Why banned or challenged?
It’s been more than 50 years since To Kill a Mockingbird was first published and it is still one of the most banned and challenged books in America. It has been challenged because of its use of racial slurs, the discussion of rape, profanity. As of 2011 it ranks in the top 10 of banned and challenged books.
The most recent reference I could find of the book being banned is an October 2013 article in which it is re-banned in the Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana because parents felt the language was offensive and the discussion of rape.
Forbidden Books Club 