To Kill a Mockingbird is 50
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, re-released by Harper Collins, is a book I remember reading in middle school. I was always a reader, but when it came to this book, I had misgivings. I wasn't sure I'd like the book at all, especially given the bland cover:
![harper-lee](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcebe2982-ccc7-4204-8d19-ba4758fe2f5a_187x300.jpeg)
Would you want to pick up this book and read it for fun? But what amazed me then is that this book stayed with me long after I'd read it, unlike many of the other books we had read in class. Racism was not something we thought about in my tiny classroom, which was mostly white until I neared graduation in high school. We lived in our own little bubble where we thought everyone was equal because that's what we were taught. Talk about ignorance. Once we went through the incredible story, the teacher brought in the movie. I was amazed by how this movie made this wonderful book come to life on the television. I cannot tell you what happened to that copy of the movie or the book, but I'm sure they were used repeatedly until they couldn't be used anymore. This is one book that I will have to add to my collection, especially since its 50th Anniversary edition is ready! You should check out the other celebrations across the Internet for this masterpiece.