This is “Banned Book Week”, an annual campaign by the American Library Association and Amnesty International to increase awareness around banned and challenged books, celebrate the freedom to read and highlight persecuted individuals. This year I am doing a little highlighting of my own, with a favorite banned book each day. The list of books that have been banned in our own country both fascinates and appalls me. I encourage you to read widely and outside your usual comfort zone at least occasionally. Each of the books this week are well worn favorites that I have read over and over.
I have saved a particular favorite for last. It is quite possible the Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird” is my favorite book of all time. There is no other book that I love more than this one. So the best any other book can hope for is to tie for my affection.
Set in a small southern town during the Depression of the 1930s, Lee takes us into the lives of Scout and Jem Finch, their summer time neighbor Dill and the people that make up their world. Scout is only six years at the time of the story, and narrates the action from some future moment, as an adult looking back. Her father is the town attorney, Atticus Finch, a quiet, thoughtful man who finds himself in the difficult position of having to raise his children following his wife’s death. Atticus is loving while not being particularly warm. Like the men of that generation, child-rearing was an activity they expected to observe at arm’s length. While Jem seems to be doing fine, his little sister is having a harder time of it. Her natural inclination is to be a “tom-boy” (in the vernacular of the time). She would be just fine if people stopped trying to make her into something that she isn’t. Scout brings an open and inquiring mind to her small town world. At the same time, her world view is sharply proscribed by both age and experience.
The central conflict of the book is also a central conflict in American culture, racism. A black man is accused of raping a white woman. Atticus takes on the defense of Tom Robinson in the face of great anger from many in the town. What follows are actions that remain very familiar eight decades later.
That central story, especially when mixed with rape, has made this one of the most banned classic American novels of all time. Published in 1960, the story is told with much more delicacy than we would see today. I was stunned the first time I came across a challenge to the book claiming that it promoted white supremacy. How you would reach that conclusion after reading the book is beyond my comprehension. Atticus Finch is dedicated to two concepts in his defense of Tom Robinson, truth and justice. Neither should be denied to his client simply because of his skin color. This is a book that rejects the racism of the day just as we should reject it today. To stand for dignity for all of mankind. There’s also a wonderful sub-pot that touches on how we deal with any person who is different, as Scout reaches out to Boo Radley.
This is a wonderful coming of age story held in the setting of a classic Southern Gothic novel. While the concepts of racism and rape will be challenging for younger readers, this is certainly a book that connects with many pre-teens. All readers older than that will find a compelling read that tells a harsh and still timely story in a gentle and warm style. Not only is it a marvelously told story, it remains timely a half century later. I highly recommend this book
Stories Are My Life 
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