English 100

To Kill a Mockingbird Reading Aids: Chapters 1 – 5

1.   Who is the narrator of this story?

2.   What is Atticus’s occupation?

3.   Describe the setting of the story.

4.   What is Calpurnia’s role in the Finch household?

5.   Describe the circumstances of Jem and Scout’s first meeting with Dill.

6.   Describe Dill.

7.   What do the children know about the Radley family’s history?

8.   Who is Miss Stephanie Crawford?

9.   Why did Jem decide to touch the Radley door?

10. How did Scout get in trouble with her teacher on her first day of school? What exactly did Scout do wrong?

11. How had Scout learned to read?

12. Why did Miss Caroline tell Burris Ewell to go home? Describe his reaction to her suggestion.

13. What agreement do Scout and Atticus come to when he learns of what happened at school that day?

14. What do Jem and Scout find in the knot-hole of the oak tree? What was their reaction? From where had the objects come?

15. Who is Miss Maudie?

16. When Miss Maudie baked cakes, what did she make the three children?

17. How was Jem insulting Scout by calling her “a girl”?

18. How did Atticus use the “oldest lawyers’ trick on record” on Jem regarding their Radley game?

Identify or explain the following:

a.   Scout’s real name

b.   Jem’s real name

c.   Boo’s real name

d.   Dill’s real name

e.   Simon Finch

f.   Atticus

g.   “looked and smelled like a peppermint drop”

h.   “hand as wide as a bed-slat and twice as hard”

i.   this boy was a “syrup-lover”

j.   this boy loved telling “tall tales”

k.   this lad had hookworms

l.   “the meanest old woman that ever lived”