Describe Miss Maudie Atkinson. How typical is she of Maycomb's women? What do the children think of her?

Miss Maudie Atkinson is the one woman who Jem and Scout--and Atticus--can count on as a true friend in Harper Lee's novel "To Kill a Mockingbird." Unlike the unhappy morphine addict Mrs. Dubose and the gossipy Miss Stephanie, Miss Maudie keeps to herself except when a neighbor is in need. Then, she is a woman who can be counted upon. She speaks to Jem and Scout as equals without condescending to them as most other adults in Maycomb. 

“She had never told on us, had never played cat-and-mouse with us, she was not at all interested in our private lives.”

Unlike most of Maycomb's other townspeople, Maudie's friendship also extends to the town's black citizens.

The handful of people in this town who say that fair play is not marked White Only; the handful of people who say a fair trial is for everybody, not just us; the handful of people with enough humility to think, when they look at a Negro, there but for the Lord's kindness am I."