About the Book: In the American South of the 1930s, young Scout Finch and her brother Jem grow up under the moral guidance of their father, Atticus, in the small town of Maycomb. When Atticus defends Tom Robinson—a Black man falsely accused of assaulting a white woman—the children witness both the cruelty of ingrained prejudice and the power of empathy. Through Scout’s innocent yet perceptive eyes, Harper Lee explores themes of racial injustice, class, conscience, and the loss of innocence, all anchored by the poignant metaphor that it is a sin to harm the helpless and harmless “mockingbird