To Kill a Mockingbird
Recommended. Age: 14+. A Catholic review of this book for parents.
Our review
Scout is a girl in a small Alabama town long ago. Her father Atticus is a lawyer who defends an innocent Black man when most of the town is against him. Scout learns to be brave, to be fair, and to be kind to people others are afraid of. This is a story about justice and about seeing every person as worth defending. Atticus does the right thing knowing he will lose, which is a clear picture of moral courage. In Catholic World Report, Thomas M. Doran defends it as a story of 'a world in which beauty, truth, and virtue matter', with 'heroically good people like Atticus Finch'. The trial is about a false rape charge and the book uses ugly racial words, so it belongs to the high school years. Memoria Press places it in ninth grade.
For parents
Independent reading from about fourteen, which fits ninth grade. It is not a read-aloud for younger children because of the trial. Common Sense Media says 12+ and Plugged In says 14 and up, and Memoria Press places it in grade 9, so Lumen follows the later age. Tell your teen beforehand that the trial concerns a false accusation of rape, and that characters use the N-word as people of that time and place did. The book shows that racism is a sin against the dignity of every person made in God's image. Ask: why does Atticus take a case he expects to lose? What does it cost him and his children? Why is it a sin to kill a mockingbird, and who are the mockingbirds? At the end the sheriff hides what Boo Radley did. Was that honest? Talk about the difference between mercy and lying, since a good end does not make a lie good.