The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer

After driving through Elmira, New York and staying at the Mark Twain Inn and later visiting Hannibal, Missouri and going to the various Mark Twain museums, I felt I should reread his classic book, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. I enjoyed. Right away young Tom, who hates work more than anything else, uses reverse psychology to convince white washing a fence is so much fun the young boys walking by should hand over their marbles for a chance to paint. Aunt Polly, Tom's guardian, loves the boy but doesn't want to show it because he gets into trouble so frequently and in such imaginative ways. After that Tom and his friends, Huck Finn and Joe skip school to build a raft and live on an island. They fish for food and play Robin Hood and pirates. After  a few nights on the island Tom sneaks back into town to learn that the town thinks the three boys have drowned in the river and are planning a funeral for Sunday. Tom goes back to the island where his friends are getting tired of the isolation and want to go home. He convinces them to stay hidden, go to the church loft before the service, and listen to their own funeral. In the book the town is called Saint Petersburg but the novel is based on the author's early years in Hannibal, Missouri. Twain really captures what it is like to be a barefoot boy in the years before the Civil War, telephones, electric lights and flashlights. I really enjoyed reading this story which was written for children but also for adults who can remember what it was like to be a child.