About To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1960 novel unfolds in Depression-era Maycomb, Alabama, through the eyes of young Scout Finch. When her father, lawyer Atticus Finch, defends Tom Robinson — a Black man falsely accused of assaulting a white woman — Scout and her brother Jem witness both the cruelty and the quiet courage of their town.

Interwoven with the mystery of the reclusive Boo Radley, the novel is a tender coming-of-age story and an unsparing look at racial injustice in the American South.

Why read it: A moral touchstone of American literature about empathy, conscience, and standing up for what's right.