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Daily Talker: Buzz Around New Book

Today, Harper Lee's follow-up to the popular Pulitzer prize-winning novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" will be released amid controversy.

The story is told from the perspective of a young girl named Scout, living in segregated Alabama in the 1930s.  Her father, a lawyer named Atticus Finch, defends a black man in court, while condemning prejudice and hatred.

But in "Go Set a Watchman," which picks up 20 years later, Finch is painted in a much different light, hostile to the growing civil rights movement of the 1950s, essentially recasting the story's protagonist as a racist.

Yesterday, Massachusetts education officials say they have no plans to drop "To Kill a Mockingbird" from the state's suggested reading list for high schoolers.  In an email to the Globe, department spokeswoman Jacqueline Reis said, "There has not been any discussion here about removing Harper Lee from the list of suggested authors in our curriculum frameworks."

 

 

What do you think of the decision to keep "To Kill A Mockingbird" on school shelves despite a beloved character being recast as racist in the follow-up book?

 

Leave your comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter using #WBZTalker.

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