<P> Initial reactions to the novel were varied . The New Yorker declared Lee "a skilled, unpretentious, and totally ingenuous writer", and The Atlantic Monthly's reviewer rated the book "pleasant, undemanding reading", but found the narrative voice--"a six - year - old girl with the prose style of a well - educated adult"--to be implausible . Time magazine's 1960 review of the book states that it "teaches the reader an astonishing number of useful truths about little girls and about Southern life" and calls Scout Finch "the most appealing child since Carson McCullers' Frankie got left behind at the wedding". The Chicago Sunday Tribune noted the even - handed approach to the narration of the novel's events, writing: "This is in no way a sociological novel . It underlines no cause...To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel of strong contemporary national significance ." </P> <P> Not all reviewers were enthusiastic . Some lamented the use of poor white Southerners, and one - dimensional black victims, and Granville Hicks labeled the book "melodramatic and contrived". When the book was first released, Southern writer Flannery O'Connor commented, "I think for a child's book it does all right . It's interesting that all the folks that are buying it don't know they're reading a child's book . Somebody ought to say what it is ." Carson McCullers apparently agreed with the Time magazine review, writing to a cousin: "Well, honey, one thing we know is that she's been poaching on my literary preserves ." </P> <P> One year after its publication To Kill a Mockingbird had been translated into ten languages . In the years since, it has sold more than 30 million copies and been translated into more than 40 languages . The novel has never been out of print in hardcover or paperback, and has become part of the standard literature curriculum . A 2008 survey of secondary books read by students between grades 9--12 in the U.S. indicates the novel is the most widely read book in these grades . A 1991 survey by the Book of the Month Club and the Library of Congress Center for the Book found that To Kill a Mockingbird was rated behind only the Bible in books that are "most often cited as making a difference". It is considered by some to be the "Great American Novel". </P> <P> The 50th anniversary of the novel's release was met with celebrations and reflections on its impact . Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune praises Lee's "rich use of language" but writes that the central lesson is that "courage isn't always flashy, isn't always enough, but is always in style". Jane Sullivan in the Sydney Morning Herald agrees, stating that the book "still rouses fresh and horrified indignation" as it examines morality, a topic that has recently become unfashionable . Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writing in The Guardian states that Lee, rare among American novelists, writes with "a fiercely progressive ink, in which there is nothing inevitable about racism and its very foundation is open to question", comparing her to William Faulkner, who wrote about racism as an inevitability . Literary critic Rosemary Goring in Scotland's The Herald notes the connections between Lee and Jane Austen, stating the book's central theme, that "one's moral convictions are worth fighting for, even at the risk of being reviled" is eloquently discussed . </P>

Why is to kill a mockingbird most often cited by the library of congress
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