I am not going to bring up Michael Jackson today. Okay? Although I actually like his music, I can't overlook his character to enjoy it. And the interwebs have enough Michael Jackson anyway. I don't need to add to it.
So, instead I am going to babble on about my life. The house is quiet. Our youngest left for a three-week trip to Israel this morning, and our oldest is working on a research project at college until September.
Summer has been late to arrive here in San Diego. Although the sky is blue, it's not quite bathing suit weather. But I've switched to summer reading mode anyway. Although I usually read non-fiction, I've got a great summer reading fiction recommendation: "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. I am listening to it on audio from Audible, but it is also available in hardback, paperback and Kindle version from Amazon.
The author captures the authentic voices of three women in Mississippi at the crossroads of the civil rights movement in 1962. Miss Skeeter is a 22-year old white woman, who just graduated from Ole Miss, but didn't get her "MRS." Abiliene and Minny are two black maids working for women in Miss Skeeter's social circle: raising their children, cooking their meals, cleaning their houses The audio version is read by three different actors, and unfolds like a radio drama. I'm sure the written version is just as captivating.
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I know it sounds crazy but the author of this program has been teaching this method for over 10 years and he's got the feedback from students to back it up. We know him well, and he clearly knows his stuff.
Harper Lee published her first and only novel in 1960, at the age of thirty-four. It won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction the following year. "To Kill a Mockingbird" tells two stories at once: one about attorney Atticus Finch's defense of a black man accused of rape, and the second about his young daughter's coming of age.
CliffsNotes: To Kill a Mockingbird
CliffsNotes does a bang up job with their literature study guides. Visit for a book summary, Harper Lee biography, character analysis, a handful of critical essays, famous quotes, and a chapter by chapter summary. They also include a glossary ("obstreperous: noisy, boisterous, or unruly, esp. in resisting or opposing"), a fifteen-question interactive quiz, and five ideas for "To Kill a Mockingbird" projects. "Select a song that represents one of the themes in To Kill a Mockingbird. Play the song for your class and discuss your choice and the theme it represents."
Harper Lee
"To Kill a Mockingbird was Lee's first novel. The book is set in Maycomb, Alabama, in the 1930s. Atticus Finch, a lawyer and a father, defends a black man, Tom Robinson, who is accused of raping a poor white girl, Mayella Ewell. The setting and several of the characters are drawn from life - Finch was the maiden name of Lee's mother and the character of Dill was drawn from Capote, Lee's childhood friend." Ms. Lee's official site is worth a visit for her bio, but unfortunately the links page is mostly out of date.
NEA The Big Read: to Kill a Mockingbird
The Big Read is a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) program addressing the decline of reading for pleasure by bringing together communities to read and "celebrate books and writers." "To Kill a Mockingbird" is one of about twenty books already on their website, with more "coming soon." For readers, the The Big Read gives us discussion questions, an author biography, and a short piece about the Jim Crow South for historical context. For teachers, they provide lesson plans, project ideas, and essay topics.
Surfnetkids Printables Club Members also get the following printables to use in the classroom, the computer lab, the school library, or to send home with students:
To Kill a Mockingbird Printable
Printable To Kill a Mockingbird Word Search
Little Rock Nine Printable
Rosa Parks Printable
"Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corn cribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." ~~ Atticus Finch in Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird".
Dear Reader,
