How long has it been since you have read To Kill a Mockingbird? I’m re-reading it now. This timeless classic is one of my favorites. C. S. Lewis said no book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally – and often far more – worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond. Books change as we do. We take away different things at different phases of our lives.
This time I’m really getting more out of To Kill a Mockingbird because I’m reading my son’s annotated copy from high school.
Tate did an impressive job noting foreshadowing, circling vocabulary words, and making comments in the margins like Calpurnia has great influence and Atticus is almost all-knowing.
It’s like reading two stories at once—Harper Lee’s original version and my son’s running commentary. Do you remember Mystery Science Theatre?
Tate underlined sentences like this one:
Walter poured syrup on his vegetables and meat…
he would probably have poured it into his milk
had I not asked what the sam hill he was doing. (p. 24)
He wrote questions in the margins.
What does sam hill mean?
It made my heart happy to know he didn’t know the meaning of sam hill in ninth grade… (I did because I talked like Scout growing up…)
I have lots of books on my summer reading list including more classics (maybe more annotated versions). What’s on your reading list?
Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.
“Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I’d have the facts.”
― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
Scout Meets Boo Radley – To Kill a Mockingbird
I bought To Kill. a Mockingbird about six months ago to read it again this summer. Your version sounds better.
I agree!!!
That book was very confusing to me…I read it once, and I never did learn how to kill a mockingbird……maybe I need to re-read it, too.=).
Tom and I both reread it last year. Then we read another book by Mary McDonagh Murphy (published in 2010) for a celebration of fifty years to Kill a Mockingbird. It is titled Scout, Atticus, and Boo. That is really neat to see your son’s take on it as you go along. 🙂
I love reading others’ notes in books… just finished one of Alyssa’s books with margin notes and smiled with every one! Little glimpses inside their minds 🙂
They are the best! I wonder if Half-Price Books has annotated used books from kids around Dallas?
I have actually never read it. I think I will Kindle it….
Best book ever!!!