Journey with me to meet characters who live in the heart of Maycomb, Alabama. As you have already witnessed through numerous resources, you are about to embark on the reading of a literary masterpiece. To Kill a Mockingbird was named the novel of the century, so I am sure you are eager to fold back the cover and get started. Make sure you obtain your own copy to the novel. If you can't find one, let your teacher know so he or she can help you.

Take a look at a map of the fictional Maycomb, Alabama. Look carefully at each section to help you picture locations you will visit while you read.

Disclaimer: Harper Lee used the old-fashioned, at-the-time-polite terms “Negro" and “colored" to describe the African-Americans who appeared in her novel. I hope you will understand that Lee had no intention to offend anyone by her choice of those terms. For integrity’s sake, she merely used the vernacular, language, of the times. Unfortunately, Harper Lee did have characters use “that other word" on occasion. Although, today, we would have to apologize for its presence, Lee was honest by understanding the reality of the time when, among many citizens in Alabama, such a hateful term was not taboo.

We know that reading a novel for class is an intimidating task. While we hope you will choose to read the entire novel in this class, we have provided summaries for some chapters. You may chose to skip the chapters for which summaries are provided and read only the required chapters.