To Kill a Mockingbird

What it's about

In the small town of Maycomb, Alabama, in the 1930s, six-year-old Scout Finch spends her summers with her brother Jem and their friend Dill, daring each other to approach the house of their mysterious neighbor, Boo Radley. Then their father, Atticus, a lawyer, agrees to defend Tom Robinson, a Black man falsely accused of raping a white woman, and the whole town turns its prejudice on the Finch family. Scout tells the story looking back on the summers that taught her how the world works.

Why it's worth reading

It's one of the most beloved novels in American history, voted America's favorite in PBS's Great American Read, because it's both a warm, funny childhood story and a clear-eyed look at injustice. Atticus Finch is the moral hero generations have grown up with.

You'll love it if you liked

East of Eden, The Color Purple or The Help

Good to know

Many people read it in school; it reads very differently as an adult, and it's worth revisiting. Racist language and attitudes of the era appear throughout, and the trial includes a rape accusation.