Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a
sin to kill a mockingbird. A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends
the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel—a black man charged with
the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch,
Harper Lee explores with rich humor and unswerving honesty the
irrationality of adult attitudes toward race and class in the Deep South of
the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence, and
hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina and quiet heroism of one man's struggle
for justice—but the weight of history will only tolerate so much. One of
the best-loved classics of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has earned many
dis-tinctions since its original publication in 1960. It has won the
Pulitzer Prize, been translated into more than forty languages, sold more
than forty million copies worldwide, and been made into an enormously
popular movie. It was also named the best novel of the twentieth century by
librarians across the country (Library Journal).