To Kill A Mockingbird - Literature Kit Gr. 9-12


Book Description

Experience prejudice during the Great Depression in this classic example of modern American literature. Great for mature lower level readers, offering grade-appropriate vocabulary and comprehension activities. Students are asked to describe what they already know about life during the Great Depression. Describe the light and dark imagery surrounding the scene out front of the jail. Describe the editorial by Mr. Underwood, and explain why the characters compare his death to that of a songbird. Complete sentences from the story with their missing vocabulary words. Explore the choice of having Scout act as narrator in the story, and what advantages and disadvantages come with first person point of view. Analyze the character of Atticus by using a T-Chart for match characteristics with proof from the text. Aligned to your State Standards and written to Bloom's Taxonomy, additional crossword, word search, comprehension quiz and answer key are also included. About the Novel: To Kill a Mockingbird is a Pulitzer Prize-winning story about a young girl and her family living in Maycomb, Alabama during the Depression. Six-year-old Scout Finch lives with her older brother Jem, and lawyer father Atticus. Scout and Jem befriend a boy named Dill who stays with his aunt each summer. The three children become fascinated with their neighbor, Boo Radley, who stays hidden in his home. One summer, Atticus is appointed by the court to defend a black man named Tom Robinson, who is accused of raping a young white woman. Atticus receives much disapproval from the townspeople, which leads to Scout, Jem and Dill saving their father and Tom from an angry mob.




Furious Hours


Book Description

This “superbly written true-crime story” (Michael Lewis, The New York Times Book Review) masterfully brings together the tales of a serial killer in 1970s Alabama and of Harper Lee, the beloved author of To Kill a Mockingbird, who tried to write his story. Reverend Willie Maxwell was a rural preacher accused of murdering five of his family members, but with the help of a savvy lawyer, he escaped justice for years until a relative assassinated him at the funeral of his last victim. Despite hundreds of witnesses, Maxwell’s murderer was acquitted—thanks to the same attorney who had previously defended the reverend himself. Sitting in the audience during the vigilante’s trial was Harper Lee, who spent a year in town reporting on the Maxwell case and many more trying to finish the book she called The Reverend. Cep brings this remarkable story to life, from the horrifying murders to the courtroom drama to the racial politics of the Deep South, while offering a deeply moving portrait of one of our most revered writers.




Go Set a Watchman


Book Description

#1 New York Times Bestseller “Go Set a Watchman is such an important book, perhaps the most important novel on race to come out of the white South in decades." — New York Times A landmark novel by Harper Lee, set two decades after her beloved Pulitzer Prize–winning masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch—“Scout”—returns home to Maycomb, Alabama from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise’s homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town, and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt. Featuring many of the iconic characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman perfectly captures a young woman, and a world, in painful yet necessary transition out of the illusions of the past—a journey that can only be guided by one’s own conscience. Written in the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman imparts a fuller, richer understanding and appreciation of the late Harper Lee. Here is an unforgettable novel of wisdom, humanity, passion, humor, and effortless precision—a profoundly affecting work of art that is both wonderfully evocative of another era and relevant to our own times. It not only confirms the enduring brilliance of To Kill a Mockingbird, but also serves as its essential companion, adding depth, context, and new meaning to an American classic.







The Mockingbird Next Door


Book Description

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is one of the best loved novels of the twentieth century. But for the last fifty years, the novel’s celebrated author, Harper Lee, has said almost nothing on the record. Journalists have trekked to her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, where Harper Lee, known to her friends as Nelle, has lived with her sister, Alice, for decades, trying and failing to get an interview with the author. But in 2001, the Lee sisters opened their door to Chicago Tribune journalist Marja Mills. It was the beginning of a long conversation—and a great friendship. In 2004, with the Lees’ blessing, Mills moved into the house next door to the sisters. She spent the next eighteen months there, sharing coffee at McDonalds and trips to the Laundromat with Nelle, feeding the ducks and going out for catfish supper with the sisters, and exploring all over lower Alabama with the Lees’ inner circle of friends. Nelle shared her love of history, literature, and the Southern way of life with Mills, as well as her keen sense of how journalism should be practiced. As the sisters decided to let Mills tell their story, Nelle helped make sure she was getting the story—and the South—right. Alice, the keeper of the Lee family history, shared the stories of their family. The Mockingbird Next Door is the story of Mills’s friendship with the Lee sisters. It is a testament to the great intelligence, sharp wit, and tremendous storytelling power of these two women, especially that of Nelle. Mills was given a rare opportunity to know Nelle Harper Lee, to be part of the Lees’ life in Alabama, and to hear them reflect on their upbringing, their corner of the Deep South, how To Kill a Mockingbird affected their lives, and why Nelle Harper Lee chose to never write another novel.




To Kill a Mockingbird


Book Description

ABOUT THE L-I-T GUIDE SERIES: These excellent teaching aids integrate the reading of outstanding works of children's literature with important reading-comprehension, speaking, writing, and listening skills. Each 40- to 56-page (Sounder is 32 pages) L-I-T Guide includes learning experiences that provide opportunities for group dynamics as well as activities to challenge students' abilities in critical and creative thinking. Each L-I-T Guide includes Story Summary, About the Author, Preparing to Read, Cooperative-Learning Projects, Vocabulary Skills, Chapter-by-Chapter Critical-Thinking Questions, Spotlight Literary Skills*, Creative-Thinking Activities, Glossary of Literary Terms, and Post-Reading Activities.




To Kill a Mockingbird


Book Description

Voted America's Best-Loved Novel in PBS's The Great American Read Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep South—and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred One of the most cherished stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than forty million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country. A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father—a crusading local lawyer—risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.




Angela's Ashes - Literature Kit Gr. 9-12


Book Description

Follow the true experiences of Frank McCourt as he struggles to support his family during his youth. Help students enjoy the novel with different activities to help comprehend the difficult vocabulary words. Students are asked to predict what will happen in the novel prior to reading it, by exploring the literary device: foreshadowing. Answer true or false questions about the family's move to Ireland. Describe the valuable lesson Mr. Halloran teaches Frank and the boys. Recall the moment Frank experienced pure joy. Describe Frank's relationship with his father and religion, and explain how this changes throughout the novel. Deconstruct a character by identifying whether Frank is a good or bad person and providing proof from the text to support this claim. Aligned to your State Standards and written to Bloom's Taxonomy, additional crossword, word search, comprehension quiz and answer key are also included. About the Novel: Angela's Ashes is a Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir about the author's own childhood and young adulthood. Frank— the eldest son of Malachy and Angela McCourt—vividly describes the hardships endured by his family. First living in Brooklyn, the family moves back to Ireland after the death of Frank's sister, Margaret. There, the family lives in poverty, as Frank's father spends all the welfare money, leaving little for food and clothes. Frank's father finally gets work in England, but neglects to send money home to his struggling family, leaving Frank to support them. The story continues with Frank searching tirelessly for a job, settling in at the post office. Eventually, Frank is able to earn enough money to return to America, hoping to start a new life.




Sounder


Book Description

This powerful Newbery-winning classic tells the story of the great coon dog Sounder and his family. An African American boy and his family rarely have enough to eat. Each night, the boy's father takes their dog, Sounder, out to look for food. The man grows more desperate by the day. When food suddenly appears on the table one morning, it seems like a blessing. But the sheriff and his deputies are not far behind. The ever-loyal Sounder remains determined to help the family he loves as hard times bear down. This classic novel shows the courage, love, and faith that bind a family together despite the racism and inhumanity they face in the nineteenth-century deep South. Readers who enjoy timeless dog stories such as Old Yeller and Where the Red Fern Grows will find much to love in Sounder, even as they read through tears at times.




Nineteen Eighty-Four - Literature Kit Gr. 9-12


Book Description

Visit a dystopian society to see what an alternate 1984 could have looked like. The variety of engaging activities can easily be broken up for students over several weeks to coordinate with assigned reading. Use what you know about Winston’s memory of his mother to describe what family relationships are like in Oceania. Predict what will happen to Winston based on what you know of the world he lives in and the consequences of his actions. Identify statements about Winston and Julia’s first meeting as true or false. Use what you have already read about room 101 and predict how Winston will react to his experiences there. Describe what the word “betrayal” means to you, and how it relates to the events in the novel. List events from the book that connect to the plot’s major themes. Aligned to your State Standards and written to Bloom's Taxonomy, additional crossword, word search, comprehension quiz and answer key are also included. About the Novel: Nineteen Eighty-Four is the year of an alternate dystopian era in which there are three ruling nations: Oceania, Eastasia and Eurasia. The former are partnered together in a war against the latter, and that’s how it’s always been. Or has it? Winston Smith works for the Ministry of Truth office. His job is to alter the history books so they line up with whatever the Party wants its citizens to believe. Everything is controlled by the Party, including language. Those that dare to have free thought are dealt with severely. Winston begins to question the Party and how things are run. He starts to rebel by purchasing a diary to write his thoughts in, beginning a relationship with a mysterious dark-haired woman, and seek out the Brotherhood who would like to see the Party taken down. But with the unseen eye of the Party leader Big Brother always watching, it’s only a matter of time before Winston is caught.