TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

At the age of eight, Scout Finch is an entrenched free-thinker. She can accept her fathers warning that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird, because mockingbirds harm no one and give great pleasure. The benefits said to be gained from going to school and keeping her temper elude her. The place of this moving story is Maycomb, Alabama. The time is the Depression, but Scout and her brother, Jem, are seldom depressed. They have appalling gifts for entertaining themselves - appalling, that is, to almost everyone except their wise lawyer father, Atticus.