To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee
In the small town of Maycomb, Alabama, in the 1930s, Scout Finch and her brother Jem spend long summers with their friend Dill, daring each other to go near the house of their mysterious neighbour, Boo Radley. Then their father, a lawyer, agrees to defend a Black man accused of a terrible crime, and the whole town turns against the family.
- Length
- About 100,000 words
- To read it
- About 67 days
- Stage
- Key Stage 3
Reading time at 1,500 words a day, the pace we start from until we know your child’s own.
Where it is taught
Why To Kill a Mockingbird is on the list
- Year 9, Stretch. A step up in length or difficulty, for a confident reader. Long a GCSE text.
Reading it here
What your child does with it
- 1
Choose it and set a finish date
You get a suggested target from the length of the book and your child's reading pace.
- 2
Check in along the way
A longer book has short check-ins every week or two, so it keeps moving and nothing is forgotten.
- 3
Answer two questions
When they finish: a review of the book, and a deeper question about how it works.
- 4
Get it marked, and redraft
Every answer is marked against the rubric for their year, with a reason for every score.