Experience racial prejudice through the eyes of Scout and Jem as they witness their father’s courageous defense of an innocent black man accused of raping a white woman. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee won a Pulitzer Prize and is a modern American classic. Discover Lee’s narrative brilliance and warm humor in depicting racial and gender inequality and class distinctions.

In conjunction with our special exhibit Banned Books 250, we are hosting monthly banned books book clubs with the San Francisco Public Library.

Where: San Francisco Public Library, Bernal Heights

When: Tuesday July 21th, 2:00-4:00pm

Publisher’s Synopsis

Grand Central Publishing
October 11, 1988
ISBN-10 : 0446310786

The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic.

Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior – to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos. Now with over 18 million copies in print and translated into forty languages, this regional story by a young Alabama woman claims universal appeal. Harper Lee always considered her book to be a simple love story. Today it is regarded as a masterpiece of American literature.

Ban History

Challenged for its racial slurs, profanity, and use of rape in the plot has led to questions about its appropriateness in the classroom. The American Library Association listed To Kill a Mockingbird at 21 out of 100 on the most frequently challenged books list from 2000–2009.

Learn more on the San Francisco Public Library’s website.

“The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.” -Oscar Wilde