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Scout, Atticus, and Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of To Kill a Mockingbird
Unavailable
Scout, Atticus, and Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of To Kill a Mockingbird
Unavailable
Scout, Atticus, and Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of To Kill a Mockingbird
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Scout, Atticus, and Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of To Kill a Mockingbird

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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About this ebook

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Harper Lee’s beloved classic To Kill a Mockingbird, filmmaker Mary Murphy has interviewed prominent figures—including Oprah, Anna Quindlen, and Tom Brokaw—on how the book has impacted their lives. These interviews are compiled in Scout, Atticus, and Boo, the perfect companion to one of the most important American books of the 20th Century. Scout, Atticus, and Boo will also feature a foreword from acclaimed writer Wally Lamb.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherHarperCollins
Release dateJun 8, 2010
ISBN9780062011718
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Scout, Atticus, and Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of To Kill a Mockingbird

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Rating: 3.8679244566037734 out of 5 stars
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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Boy, does Mockingbird ever need some positive affirmation and appreciation at the moment! Here Mary McDonagh interviews a range of authors, teachers, celebrities and people connected with the book and the film, including Mary Badham (Scout) and Alice Lee (Harper's sister), to find out just why the story and the characters are so popular and enduring. Bonus points for not mentioning Watchman (well, once, obliquely - editor Tay Hohoff recalling of the first manuscript entitled 'Atticus', that 'there were many things wrong with it').Rosanne Cash values the 'beautiful naturalness' and 'sense of confidence in his skills as a parent' that Atticus demonstrates, while novelist Richard Russo wanted Atticus as a father (me too). Whereas for Mary Badham, and probably for everyone else who has seen the film, 'Gregory Peck was my Atticus'. Mark Childress points out that Atticus 'is a little too good to be true, but in the book he's got more bumps than he's allowed to have in the movie', which is true. Allan Gurganus admires how Lee 'manages to be a child and an adult', the secret weapon of the novel which confuses most critics, and also suggests that 'the lady down the street' (Maudie) might be Atticus' 'part-time lover of an evening'. (Sacrilege!)We also learn more about Harper Lee, which to be honest, doesn't interest me all that much - her brother Edwin was probably the model for Jem, particularly in Watchman. Edwin 'married, had two children and then died of an aneurysm in his sleep' (just like Harper's mother, although Harper was older than Scout when she died). Also, the Lee family house in Alabama was long since demolished and replaced by Mel's Dairy Dream (reminds me of Grosse Pointe Blanke - 'you can never go home again - but you can shop there').Lots of great anecdotes and Mockingbird initiations, plus plenty love for Atticus - he's far from a paragon in the novel, but he is a good parent and a positive character. All the Watchman mudslinging at the moment really depresses me. Definitely one for the fans, but a worthy companion to the novel. Go Forget A Watchman - read this instead!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I really enjoyed reading this book Murphy put together for the fiftieth anniversary of To Kill A Mockingbird. The pieces were so well-chosen, whether from a former minster of Lee's church in Monroeville to many well-known Southern authors. I particularly liked the themes that ran through several pieces, whether they were of a historical nature or personal tidbits about Harper Lee.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The author created both a documentary and a book compiling the thoughts of authors, teachers and celebrities about the wonderful classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. She included everyone from Oprah to Harper Lee’s own sister to the actress who played Scout in the movie. The book chronicles people’s favorite scenes, their questions, their first experience reading it and the reasons why they love it. People all over the world have been touched by the book because of the issues it addresses and the young characters’ unique points-of-view. Lee could talk about racism or a morphine addiction without it seeming too dark, because Scout and Jem were so innocent. Their questions don’t feel preachy because they ask them out of true spirit of curiosity. Lee also made the wise decision to set the book a few decades earlier than it was published, in the 1930s, so people in the south were able to look at the issue of racism while distancing themselves from the issue. So many people in the book talk about how they wanted to know exactly what was fact and what was fiction. I never wondered about that. I suppose I always assume an author can’t help but put themselves in their novels in one way or another, but it doesn’t affect me too much as the reader. One thing I loved discovering was that Harper's sister Alice was such a B.A. She worked for the IRS, then as a journalist, then as a lawyer, and even in her 90s, she still practices in Monroeville. She bucked the norms and worked in male-dominated fields, never backing down from a new challenge.Many people compared the book to Gone with the Wind and there are some amazing similarities. Both are set in the south, deal with racism, were written by women, were the only novels written by their authors, etc. They are such different books, but it’s interesting to think about the threads that connect them.The fact that Harper Lee withdrew from the public eye has always been a point of interest for people. One person in the book suggests that she may have done that after seeing what happened to her friend Truman Capote when he embraced his fame. It would be horrible to watch your friend self-destruct in that way. I’ve always had such respect for Lee’s choice to withdraw from the limelight. She knew she didn’t want that spotlight on her for the rest of her life; so instead, she went and lived a rich life with her friends and family in Monroeville.I read this during my recent road trip through Alabama, while we were on our way to Monroeville to see the town and courthouse that started it all. I’m sure that played a huge part in why I enjoyed this so. I already felt immersed in the South and in that story, so reading others thoughts on it fit right in. If you don’t adore To Kill a Mockingbird, this book isn’t for you, but hopefully that’s pretty obvious. For the rest of us, it’s a chance to revisit a favorite book and to look at it through a dozen different pairs of eyes.  
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Bought this book mostly because it was on sale and I've always loved the film, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. But, as I was perusing this rather uneven collection of interviews with a couple dozen readers, some famous (Oprah, James Patterson, Rick Bragg, James McBride, Rosanne Cash, Richard Russo, Tom Brokaw, Wally Lamb, etc.), some not, in which they all talked about their first time reading TKaM, I found I was unable to remember reading the book at all. I'd seen the film, of course, at least a half dozen times over the past fifty years. But the book? I just could not remember. Wally Lamb's interview really got me curious, so I went and found a copy of Harper Lee's now-classic novel and started reading. I finished it in just a few sittings in a couple days. Wow! What a book! And these other folks who said Horton Foote's screenplay was pretty near perfect were right. In any case, if Mary McDonagh Murphy's SCOUT, ATTICUS & BOO: A CELEBRATION OF TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD serves any useful purpose, it's to nudge people to read - or reread - Lee's novel. Because THAT is simply a beautiful book! This book, these interviews? Meh! They're really only just okay. Mildly interesting. A curiosity. But thanks for that needed nudge, Murph. I needed it.- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    good