To Kill a Mocking Bid is definitely one of the best books in American history. It clearly describes the unjust discrimination against the blacks in the south in the 1930's. It taught me alot about racism in the south. I really admire Atticus Finch, the main character in this novel, he stepped up to defend a black man despite losing all his friends and reputation.

Here in Duluth everybody in town is supposed to be reading Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird," and there are all sorts of literary discussions, dramatic events, and the like going on all month long. In addition to rereading the novel, which is probably my favorite in American Literature, I have been looking over the various study guides available. Barron's "Literature Made Easy" guides are based on "modern scientific knowledge of how the brain works," which means not only using pictures and graphics, but unique "mind maps" that summarize details students need to learn. The idea with these is that you use them to take notes and develop a personal outline of your thoughts about the character and plot of the novel which branch out from a central point. Now, this might look a bit intimidating to me, but the goal is to build simple chains of key associations regarding what is happening in a novel and what it means. Ah, the joys of 21st century education.

This book, written by Mary Hartley, also makes use of icons for key themes from Harper Lee's novel: growing up is a cake, courage is a heart, racial prejudice a face half black and half white, etc. A typewriter is used to highlight commentary about Lee's choice of words and imagery (i.e., style and language). These icons pop up during the commentary section so that students can trace the develop and interaction of the various themes. The guide begins with some background on the author and the time in which "To Kill a Mockingbird" is set, followed by a synopsis, a discussion of the main characters, and an overview of the main themes of the novel.

The commentary section breaks each chapter into sections. For example, Chapter 1 is broken down into The start of it all, Atticus and the Finch family, Dill's arrival, Boo and the Radleys, and "Just go up and touch the house." Each section starts with the first and last sentence that define it, followed by a list of what happens in that part, commentary, and questions marked with stars which young readers are supposed to stop and think about. In comparison to similar study guides, such as Cliffsnotes, this approach has the key values of inviting active participation from the readers and dealing with more discrete units within each chapter. The little pieces add up to some significant whole without the students realizing what is going on.

The back of the book has Topics for Discussion and Brainstorming, suggestions on How to Get an "A" in English Literature (which probably translates to American Lit as well), an Exam Essay, a Model Answer and Essay Plan, Glossary and Index. My feeling is that this book is geared more towards junior high students, which is fine since that was the grade level at which I taught "To Kill a Mockingbird." Teachers can certainly find some useful things to emphasize in class discussions, even if students are not using the guide. Other volumes in the "Literature Made Easy Series" look at "Animal Farm," "Julius Caesar," "Lord of the Flies," "MacBeth," "Of Mice and Men," "Pride and Prejudice," and "Romeo and Juliet."

Great life lessons, on racism and hate. It makes you sympathetic towards the outsiders.

Why all this strange words? I have no problem what so ever with the English language, but this book, have a lot of slang that is not so easy to translate. I don't say it's a bad or anything but..My classmates did actually agree with me when I said it was too difficult to understand. Hey, I'm from Sweden, and the english we learn in school is NOT the same language that English people talk, or write for that matter. Well, Harper Lee is one of the better authors that I can think of and To kill a mockingbird is kind of a great book if you learn to understand all the slang that follows. Thank you!

I thought his book was extra-ordinary. The characters are so interesting and complex. Harper Lee is a brilliant writer and really brought this little southern town to life with her descriptions of the town and the people in the town. She has a vocabulary to die for. I have to say my favorite character is Scout because she is so innocent and really wants to know what is going on but can't quite get the clue. She is so adorable and she knows who she is and how she thinks she should act and she doesn't bother herself by responding to the snotty remarks of Miss Stephanie. This book is really amazing and I would recomend it to anyone that is looking for a good read.

This is not really a 'diary' of lillie Langtry. Lillie's life (and her real-life acting tours across the USA) is used as a literary conceit to put together a series of biographies of contempoaray 'famous' american women.

A lot of these women had quite significant achievements in their lifetime, but I had never heard of them before.

While I found their lives interesting I was dissapointed to see how little the author developed Lillie's Life story. Beware of the 'other rememberances' in this book's title, because they, not lillie, take up the bulk of the book.

Buy this if you are interested in a series of biographies on dis-seperate, but ground breaking women - don't buy it if you want an interesting book on Lillie Langtry, because in the end it's not really about her, despite the title.

I was greatly surprised at the approach Ms. Harper took with this book. Lillie has been written about for a very long time and her own biography has been of great enjoyment. The lady traveled extensively which gives credence to the stories in this book, put together in a novel form by Ms. Harper. Lillie did in fact meet the likes of Bat Masterson, the Moon sisters et al. Harper has taken archival files and pieced together the lady's life well. Her attempt at purchasing a huge piece of property outside of Middletown, CA was a flash in the pan, compared to recent stories and Harper puts it together honestly.
Yes, the book is about women and Lillie is the linkpin. It's worth the read and very much worth keeping on your shelf.

Reads like an exciting anthology of short stories. Ms. Langtry shines as a real heroine of her time. And all the traveling she did on horseback, carriage and boat must have consumed her spare time. Very much worth the read.

A very scholarly review of one of my favorite books. Ms. Johnson points out similarities between events surrounding the trial of Tom Robinson in the book TKM and real life events surrounding the infamous trial of the "Scottsboro Incident", where several black youths were wrongfully accused, tried and convicted of raping a white woman in the South. Thus, pointing out how Lee's environment influenced her writing. It includes a chronology of key events in Lee's life and details about her relationship with Truman Capote. Ms. Johnson also gives a very indepth explanation of Gothicism in literature and how she comes to claim that TKM is a Gothic book, wherein the issues of boundaries are discussed. She points out a number of very interesting behaviors of the characters in TKM and also some similarities between the characters. Interestingly she points out how Atticus is Christlike. Overall a very insightful and scholarly review that will add to your enjoyment of the book TKM.

its a really well written book exploring the diversity, and aspects of human nature-- racism plays an important role, also, the ways of court systems "back in the days", dealing with rape charges against a coloured man. Fear takes over the children, they're not afraid of Radley's place, but have a fear of fear within. very well written! i recommend this book to anyone who's looking for something different!

Claudia Durst Johnson points out that despite the popularity of Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird," it has not really been the subject of serious academic study. In fact, you are more likely to find it being analyzed in law journals rather than literary magazines. Johnson is out to rectify this problem in this look at the novel in terms of "Threatening Boundaries."

The first part of this book looks at the literary and historical context of the novel in three chapters: (1) Racial Climate in the Deep South focuses on both racial tension during the Depression, which is both the setting of the novel and the time of the trials of the Scottsboro case as well as in the mid-century, when Lee was writing the novel and the Civil Rights movement was gaining momentum; (2) The Importance of "To Kill a Mockingbird" talks about not only the way the novel has resonated with readers but the attempts to censor it in school libraries and the controversy in the legal community over Atticus Finch's defense of Tom Robinson; and (3) The Critical and Popular Reception of "To Kill a Mockingbird" looks at both the newspaper and magazine reviews as well as the published legal criticism. These entire section provides an excellent background to Lee's novel, not only for better understanding its social origins but its place in American culture.

What makes this book a different approach to the novel from most literary criticism is that the idea of "boundaries" translates in five different "readings" of the text: (1) a discussion of the technical boundaries Lee establishes to advance her narrative in terms of plot, point of view, setting, and metaphor; (2) a look at the novel's use of the Gothic tradition, explored as a fictional construct of a castle's walls; (3) in a similar vein, a consideration of the walls of difference separating the various characters; (4) a treatment of the boundaries of law and code; and (5) an exploration of the relationship of art and expression in terms of the other boundaries discussed. Consequently, Johnson presents a series of readings, looking at the novel from various perspectives without being overly concerned with how everything fits together.

This is advanced literary criticism, useful more for college classes than secondary schools, although certainly teachers could take some of Johnson's arguments and make them palatable for their students. I think the idea that real life lawyers would argue about whether Atticus Finch did the right thing would be fascinating to younger readers, who usually consider him to be one of the noblest characters in American Literature. My final piece of advice is not to read this book at one setting, especially the five readings in the second part. TEach one reflects a serious change in perspective and you really need to clear the decks of your mind before you move from one reading to the next.

I truely loved this book.Wehn I read it I felt as if i was that little girl and I felt her pain. The story is of this little girl and her parenst have recently seperated and her mom beats her.

To kill a Mockingbird has been one of my favorite books since childhood, so now that I'm a mother I wanted to pass it on to my daughter. Being my native language spanish, my husband and I agreed on making our children biligual, so we read to them in both languages...it was a very nice surprise to find this book translated to spanish and to find also that it hasn't lost as much as other translated books, the words and the sense of the phrases are translated as exact as possible to the original novel which makes the reading very worthy. The size of the book makes it really convenient and the price of it too.

A very well written book. The dialog is very snappy between Sweet Amity and the Captain. There is a little sex and it is handled very tastefully. I liked this book so much the cover is falling off!

This manual is a waste of your money. You can buy both the actual book and the movie on Amazon for less than $25 combined, and they're both worth every penny....

I first read "To Kill a Mockingbird" when I was 13 -- I had no trouble understanding it then and, not surprisingly, I still don't. Truth be told, while it more than deserves to be held as a "classic" (usually meaning insipid and torturous, though not the case here), Lee's novel is pretty straightforward.

You should have no problem determining how well Atticus Finch made his case, or how African-Americans were treated in 1935, or the history of the town that is so well-described it becomes like another character in the book.

The only reason to buy a book about understanding "To Kill a Mockingbird" is because you are a teacher who likes to beat the meaning of such things into the ground, or a student who has unfortunately been forced or advised to purchase an unnecessary guide to one of the most enjoyably down-to-earth books ever written.

As a participant in this year's "One Book, One Chicago", I have read the "REAL DEAL", which is the book selected for the program's inaugural year. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and also felt I had no problems understanding the critical issues illustrated in the book. I then made the forunate decision to attend a lecture by Ms. Durst Johnson at the Chicago Public Library; a lecture based primarily on information contained in her commentary. My time was not wasted: for as much as I had indeed GRASPED about the novel, there were still many more interesting things to learn that I had not even considered. While some may consider it "beating a subject to death" (or some such nonsense), your reading experience will definitely be enhanced by referring to, but not relying on, this book's contents.