Favorite Teachable Books--To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird is an enduring choice for high school students. The unique juxtaposition of presenting an incident in the Jim Crow South of the 1930s not only within its own historical context and reaction, but at the same time examining it through the eyes of the Finch family who hold the moral beliefs of the more accepting, more educated Civil Rights response of the 1950s allows the reader to "grow" 20-30 years in his moral value judgment while experiencing a story that only spans 2-3 years.

A second literary device that appears deceptively simple about the novel is filtering the action through the eyes of a six year-old child. Harper Lee lays out, with a fair amount of detail, some difficult, complex issues in this book. But then she presents a child saying, "Oh, I get it. He must have meant..." and she has the youngster retell, in simple direct wording, the main idea that the audience is supposed to catch. It's a stroke of genius--we can ALL understand the message! To Kill a Mockingbird will continue to be a strong choice.