"Scout and her older brother are children growing up in the backyards and fields of small-town Alabama in the 1930s.

Classics have a bad reputation partly they're so often assigned reading (not the best circumstance under which to meet a book), and stories of the small-town South never sounded that appealing to me. If you've been avoiding this book out of fear that it was literary without being entertaining, don't. The plot may not sound that appealing, but the characterization is exceptional and the dramatic payoff is one of the best I've read. Regardless of any deeper moral point, this is simply good storytelling and deserves to be as famous as it is. Russ Allbery

Rare interview with author Harper Lee

To Kill A Mockingbird Wikipedia pages for the book and film.