A journal response to Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird from Scout's perspective

Dear Journal,

Summer is over now, and I am old enough to enter the school, which my brother Jem is in. At first, I was looking forward to get into a school, but after my first at school, I start dislike school. I guess the main reason is my teacher, Miss Caroline. She tried to prevent me from learning by myself, and telling me not to write before grade three. Miss Caroline is new to Maycomb County, so it is not surprised when she forced Walter Cunningham to take her quarter for lunch. The one thing that I can’t quite understand is that when I explained that the Cunningham never took anything they can’t pay back to Miss Caroline, and she picked up a ruler, gave me several quick pats, then told me to stand in the corner. I don’t think I did anything out of order.

After the first day of school, I really miss what happened during the summer where Jem, Dill, and I were playing around together. To be honest, the only thing I remember clearly from summer is the time when Dill persuaded Jem to touch the Radley’s house, and Jem was freaked out of his mind. After all, Jem still did it and we dashed back to our home as if Boo would come to us. Well, we have never known anything in detail about the Radley since Atticus doesn’t want to talk about it.

Maybe I shouldn’t write that much in my journal since Miss Caroline doesn’t like it, but who cares. I’m still going to copy out a chapter from the Bible, in order to get an open-faced sandwich of bread with butter and sugar from Culpurnia.