Today, some fresh takes on Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-Winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s a window into life in the Jim Crow south through the eyes of a little girl. At its center is six-year-old Scout, her brother Jem, and her love for her father, Atticus Finch.

The book was published in 1960, and was adapted into an Oscar-winning film two years later, when issues of race, civil rights and justice were simmering in the United States. Fifty years after publication, To Kill a Mockingbird remains relevant. Last week, the center for the book at the New Hampshire State Library kicked off a state-wide, month-long initiative to unite communities through reading and discussion of the book. We hear why the book holds meaning and models human behavior among readers, writers, film buffs, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and some local public defenders.

We're joined by Eleanor Strang, chair of the advisory board for the Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library.

Jenn Monroe is an assistant professor of writing and literature at Chester College of New England, and a poet. She’s taught To Kill a Mockingbird in her Banned Books class.

With Good Reason (a program of the Virginia Foundation of the Humanities): To Kill A Mockingbird