Of course, it is not uncommon for a book release to spark headlines.

A veteran of any Harry Potter book release knows as much.

J.K. Rowling notwithstanding, this is big.

In July Harper Lee's companion novel to "To Kill A Mockingbird" arrives.

"Go Set a Watchman" comes out July 14.

The book's promised release garnered headlines in the New York Times in February.

On a recent trip to a Barnes and Noble bookstore, I found a display of past editions of "To Kill A Mockingbird" and a speculative oversized version of the cover of "Go Set a Watchman" hanging in the main store windows.

The release of the official cover art for the book warranted its own news story in March. Harper, the book's publishers, plans to print two million copies of the book for the July release and pre-orders are brisk. This is big.

After "To Kill a Mockingbird," Lee was reluctant to publish another book and did not until now, more than five decades later. The author published her first book when she was in her mid-30s. Now in her mid-80s, the long-reclusive author had a stroke in 2007 and lives in an assisted-living residence. Lee, it has been said, believed she had said all she wanted to say in her first book.

First published in 1960, Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" is considered a classic and, according to writer Alexandra Alter, has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide, continues to sell about a million copies a year and has been translated into more than 40 languages.

I continue to cherish the copy I read the summer between sixth and seventh grade for my school's summer reading list.

A family hand-me-down originally owned by one of my siblings, the book is battered, or perhaps well-loved is a better term, the red cover now held on by ever- more brittle and yellowing masking tape.

Many of you no doubt remember the 1962 movie of the book. Gregory Peck played Atticus Finch, the only role to earn him an Academy Award.

In the CBS News obituary of Peck, the actor is said to have described Finch as being the kind of man he aspired to be.

Finch, a country lawyer, defends a black man accused of rape in the Depression-era South. The story is told by Scout, Finch's young daughter.

"Go Set a Watchman" tells the story of an adult Scout's return home to see her aging father. In advance press about the coming book, "To Kill a Mockingbird" is described as emerging from flashbacks told in "Go Set a Watchman."

Lee's editor found Scout's flashbacks to be more compelling and encouraged Lee to write a book based on those flashbacks. The rest is literary history.

"Go Set a Watchman" originally was thought to be a draft of "To Kill a Mockingbird" and was found, according to Alter, "attached to an original typed manuscript of "To Kill a Mockingbird" in Harper Lee's archives.

Lee herself said she thought the manuscript of "Go Set a Watchman" was long ago lost or, worse from a fan's point of view, destroyed.

From your own reading of "To Kill A Mockingbird," perhaps in middle or high school English classes, you likely recall the major themes tackled by the book, among those most looming being the role of race in American history.

"To Kill A Mockingbird" has prompted numerous school essays about race.

Teachers have encouraged students to think about issues of race, confront their own understanding of race in America and, if we shared an English teacher, articulate those observations in class.

With luck, "Go Set a Watchman" will prompt similar efforts in what so many have called, or have called for, a (continuing) national conversation about race in our time.

Recently, the conversation has been fitful.

As examples, protests sparked by what many see as racially motivated treatment of black men by police fill news coverage on television and radio and in print from Missouri to New York to Baltimore.

Media critics point to the lack of best actor nominees of color for the 2014 Academy Awards as a "disconnect between the (movie) industry and America," according to Darnell Hunt, director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at University of California Los Angeles, quoted in the Los Angeles Times in February.

And a recent proposed auction of artwork created by Japanese Americans forced into internment camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor made headlines and was ultimately canceled after survivors, their descendants and supporters, including "Star Trek" actor George Takei who, with his family, was among those confined to internment camps in Arkansas and California, objected in online petitions.

"Go Set a Watchman" unfolds two decades after "To Kill a Mockingbird" ends.

Readers and fans may hope to see how Scout has matured and sees her world through adult eyes and what lessons learned in her childhood, including lessons about race, still resonate with her.

I am looking forward to catching up with Atticus, Jem and Scout. Reading "Go Set a Watchman" will be like visiting with old friends.

Let's hope the Finches will again have much to tell us.

April Peterson

editorial assistant

East Penn Press

Salisbury Press