To Kill a Mocking Bird - Harper Lee

Samuel Taylor Coleridge tells us that a good poem is not one that you enjoy best when you first read it, but one that you return to most eagerly.  On this calculation To Kill a Mockingbird is a good novel; I return to it eagerly and always get something from it.  What struck me this time was not the childish horror of Boo Radley, or the shooting of the rabid dog; I was taken rather by Scout's first day at school - she was criticised because she could already read and told not to read at home any more because she had to learn how to read properly.  Interestingly enough, when I first read To Kill a Mockingbird - at school - we were told not to read ahead at home in case we failed to understand the book correctly; naturally I disobeyed.  I also enjoyed the part where Scout calls her cousin a 'whore-lady' before questioning her uncle as to what a 'whore-lady' actually is.  As I see it Harper Lee has a way of telling a complex, sensitive and controversial story without losing the innocence that makes her characters worthwhile knowing in the first place.

 Anyway, if you haven't read the book, I would recommend that you do so.  If you have, have a look to see if it is ready to jump off your shelf again.  To Kill a Mockingbird is a good book.