The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: Written by Mark Twain

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was written by Mark Twain in 1876. The book is based in the early to mid 19^th century.

Tom Sawyer is a boy of about 10. He has no parents so he is being raised by his Aunt Polly. He has two cousins, Sid and Mary. Tom is a very clever and mischievous boy. He is always trying to outwit his Aunt and succeeds most of the time. Except when Sid finds out what really happened and tells on Tom.

One example of Tom outwitting his Aunt is when she told him to paint the entire fence with white paint. And to make matters worse he has to do it on a Saturday! But Tom finds a way out. One of his friends comes over to ask Tom if he can play. Tom says that he can't. “Why?” asked his friend. “I have to be a man and work instead,” said Tom. His friend is intrigued and wants to know if he could be a man too. “Oh no, you can't paint this fence only I can do it,” said Tom. But his friend kept insisting that he wanted to paint the fence. “Okay, give me the rest of the apple in your hand and you can paint the fence,” said Tom. His friend was delighted. This went on for the rest of the time that the fence was being painted. More of Tom's friends would come and prove himself worthy of painting the fence. Tom would ask them to give him something and then they could paint the fence. So instead of losing the day, Tom actually gained a lot. After the fence was painted in record time (even with three coats) Tom went inside and told his Aunt the fence was done. She was shocked that he had done it that quickly. Naturally she didn't believe him. But when she checked herself she was even more surprised that it actually had been painted. With three coats too! So she excused Tom and he went running off to find his friends.

The book continues with a lot of stories like this one. In one story Tom and two of his friends sail to an island in the middle of the Mississippi River and become pirates.

Another one describes how Tom fell in love with a girl named Becky Thatcher.

This book has its ups and downs like any other book. But I like how Mark Twain retells the adventures of his boyhood friends in this novel. He said at the beginning of the book that these were real people that he knew in his childhood. I think that's kind of cool.