I KILL THE MOCKINGBIRD

Literary terrorists hit Connecticut, and things go awry for a trio of well-meaning book addicts.

“What if we could make everybody read To Kill a Mockingbird this summer?” Lucy asks her friends Elena and Michael. They’ve received summer reading lists on the last day of eighth grade, and their favorite, To Kill a Mockingbird, is one of their choices. It’s such a great book, though, that everyone should read it, so they go about scheming to make that happen. Operating on the principle of supply and demand, they figure if they make the novel scarce, students will flock to libraries and bookstores in search of it. Naming their conspiracy “I Kill the Mockingbird,” they set out to hide copies of the Harper Lee classic, purposely misshelving it in bookstores and libraries in town and, eventually, throughout the state. They create a presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr, and their plot quickly goes out of control, encouraging copycats around the country. Soon, their plan to promote reading begins to seem like censorship, a plot by publishers or a big practical joke. Acampora’s tale of three book-loving protagonists out to spread the love celebrates books and readers, and it fizzes in Lucy’s lively first-person narration. The spot-on dialogue combines with the irresistible appeal of young teenagers enthusiastically pursuing bad ideas for a fast, page-flipping read.

It’ll make readers look at reading and activism in a whole new light.