FEBRUARY BOOK OF THE MONTH DISCUSSION NIGHT - To Kill a Mockingbird chat will take place here on Tuesday 26th FFeb

[TillyBookClub]

This is the place to come for our February discussion night on To Kill a Mockingbird. We'll kick off at the usual time of 8pm - and I'll let you know if we get an author chat sorted...

I can completely undersand why kids don't like it or "get" it. I think you need a certain maturity (motherhood goggles?) to understand and appreciate it.

I loved it and I was glad that I hadn't read it as a child

2Good2BTrue - what I love about this book (and why it's my fave book of all time) is that you can read it at all sorts of levels, and you get something different out of it each time.

It's definitely going to be a book I will read again

See, i loved it when i was younger (can't remember when i first read it, but it was when i was at school). the trial storyline and racial element is the first level and I think its really accessible to young people for this reason. i only started to think about the other things when i was older. and motherhood does give you a different take on it

plus its funny in places - "damn ham" anyone??

i think younger readers can appreciate this book too. when i first found it lying around in the bathroom (it was on my big sister's GCSE syllabus) I really enjoyed it from the point of view of the children in the book, and i was entranced by that whole Southern world with porches and ladies fanning and lemonade. it was a real love affair with the location if nothing else. my affiliation with the characters themselves grew over time

Tilly - the fact that the kids are so misunderstood is quite relevant today don't you think? If it was set now there would probably be one of those mosquito devices to stop them hanging out, and CCTV to catch them moving the old ladies furniture...

But what a freedom...for children to roam, and go where they please, and play out until it gets dark - despite obvious "weirdos" in the neighbourhood. I'm not sure I'd let my kids play where the neighbours were likely to shoot them for trespassing in their collards!

hi there 2Good2BTrue, nice to have you.

I felt very emotional at the end. Particularly when Atticus says 'Thank you for my children, Arthur'.

The most moving moment for me is when Scout stands on Boo's proch and sees the world from his perspective - two children growing up with the seasons, who suddenly need his protection. I loved that Boo was the hero, and that everyone's prejudices are overturned - including the readers (I thought he was going to end up being a scary weirdo).

I think that's why it didn't feel like a book about race to me - there were prejudices about all sorts of people. E.g when Scout invites Walter Cunningham back for lunch and then makes him uncomfortable, she has to learn to be compassionate and see that his family are poor but honourable.

I think that I was a lazy reader at school and wanted to read fast paced books that got to the essence of the story without having to think about it - (I read too many Nancy Drew books!)
It is only through experience that I have really started to appreciate great writing and I am really loooking forward to revisiting some of these classics.

I also read a lot of Nancy Drew

I agree Tilly - that line from Atticus made me well-up....

strawberrylace, I guess they did have enormous freedom to roam and play games, but there always seems to be at least two or three neighbours in close proximity (although they don't understand the kids perspective, they do know who they are and have some sort of connection to them.) So it seems a safer place than today's streets, even with the threat of mr Radley's shotgun.

gemmiegoatlegs, did you find the location a bit stifling? or do you think it would have been a quirky, eccentric place to be? All the neighbours are pretty odd, but you still feel it is a quite magical atmosphere. I love the bit when it snows and hardly anyone has seen the stuff before.

I was howling at the end!

I loved the fact that Boo turned out to be a hero. I did think that he was going to be creepy weirdo (and as dp had mentioned what the book was about, I thought for some time that Boo was going to turn out to be the rapist)

The device of telling the story in retrospect, with an adult Scout retelling her childhood memories, means that Harper Lee was able to use a combination of experience and naievity. At times, her narration is so innocent and pure, whilst the adult characters are so corrupt and hypocritical.

Tilly - I agree with the you about Scout standing on the porch. It was as though she had finally grown up and was able to understand that she has been a part of his world.
That fact that Boo wasn't a 'scary weirdo' was great as I think Harper Lee really encapuslated how it felt to be a child not understanding the underlying reasons for someone's way of life.
It released so many memories of being a child again.

haven't read this book for so long, had forgotten, or not gotten so much of the sub text. Am loving this, will be up for reading and contributing to next book discussion. Going off now to dust off my copy of To Kill A Mocking Bird

Squonk - even having read it before I still thought that Boo was going to be the rapist or at least mistaken for him.

yeah, scout standing on the porch looking from Boo's perspective was quite powerful, you could almost feel scout growing up a bit.

2good - discussed it with dp before tonight, and he remembered that Boo was the rapist!

tilly, i loved the odd neighbours! growing up in suburbia everyone seems so normal and reading this book I thought "wow...it would never be dull on a street like that". The two deaf sisters, Miss Maudie and the formidable Mrs Dubose!

The sense of commumnity is definitely vital to the story. It is very insular and closed to new people and new ideas. I loved the bit with Miss Caroline and her dewey decimal system and the way her ways are met with utter confusion by the children.

It is a stifling environment, both physically 'a black dog suffered on a summer's day' and mentally. New ideas are not welcome. Men like Atticus, who try to change the status quo, are met with suspicion in some quarters and downright hatred in others.

meant community

I agree, I think it would be a brilliant place to grow up. Everyone's pretty weird when you're a kid, aren't they? Or at least you pretend they are.

We told everyone our next door neighbour's son was an incredible hulk who couldn't speak and had a secret obsession with my eldest sister. And we'd crawl beneath the windows so that Dennis the travelling man couldn't see that anyone was in when he came to ask for food. Poor guy, he was probably a sweetheart.

One of the very last bits is quite revealing - when Scout says about a classmate 'he was actually real nice' and Atticus says 'most people are, when you finally see them'. Its a very positive message, I wonder if Harper Lee really believed it, that most people are inherently good.

Wasn't it her only book?