Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read Sparkling with mischief, jumping with youthful adventurousness, Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer is one of the most splendid re-creations of childhood in all of literature. It is a lighthearted romp, full of humor and warmth. It shares with its sequel, the masterpiece Huckleberry Finn , not only a set of unforgettable characters—Tom, Huck, Aunt Polly, and others—but a profound understanding of humankind as well. Through such hilarious scenes as the famous fence-whitewashing incident, Twain gives us a portrait—perceptive yet tender—of a humanity rendered foolish by its own aspirations and obsessions. An enduring classic that famously appeals to young and old alike, Tom Sawyer is the work of a master storyteller performing in his shirtsleeves, using his best talents to everyone’s delight. “A sacred text within the body of American literature.” —Frank Conroy Sparkling with mischief, jumping with youthful adventure, Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer is one of the most splendid re-creations of childhood in all of literature. It is a lighthearted romp, full of humor and warmth. It shares with its sequel, Huckleberry Finn , not only a set of unforgettable characters--Tom, Huck, Aunt Polly and others--but a profound understanding of humanity as well. Through such hilarious scenes as the famous fence-whitewashing incident, Twain gives a portrait--perceptive yet tender--of a humanity rendered foolish by his own aspirations and obsessions. Written as much for adults as for young boys and girls, Tom Sawyer is the work of a master storyteller performing in his shirt sleeves, using his best talents to everyone's delight. Sparkling with mischief, jumping with youthful adventure, Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer is one of the most splendid re-creations of childhood in all of literature. It is a lighthearted romp, full of humor and warmth. It shares with its sequel, "Huckleberry Finn, not only a set of unforgettable characters--Tom, Huck, Aunt Polly and others--but a profound understanding of humanity as well. Through such hilarious scenes as the famous fence-whitewashing incident, Twain gives a portrait--perceptive yet tender--of a humanity rendered foolish by his own aspirations and obsessions. Written as much for adults as for young boys and girls, "Tom Sawyer is the work of a master storyteller performing in his shirt sleeves, using his best talents to everyone's delight. Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, who was born in Missouri in 1835 and died in Connecticut in 1910. He worked as a Mississippi riverboat pilot, a journalist, and a travel writer before achieving tremendous popularity as a humorist and novelist. Chapter 1 "Tom!" No answer. "Tom!" No answer. "What's gone with that boy, I wonder? You TOM!" No answer. The old lady pulled her spectacles down and looked over them, about the room; then she put them up and looked out under them. She seldom or never looked through them for so small a thing as a boy; they were her state pair, the pride of her heart, and were built for "style," not service;-she could have seen through a pair of stove lids just as well. She looked perplexed for a moment, and then said, not fiercely, but still loud enough for the furniture to hear: "Well, I lay if I get hold of you I'll-" She did not finish, for by this time she was bending down and punching under the bed with the broom-and so she needed breath to punctuate the punches with. She resurrected nothing but the cat. "I never did see the beat of that boy!" She went to the open door and stood in it and looked out among the tomato vines and "jimpson" weeds that constituted the garden. No Tom. So she lifted up her voice, at an angle calculated for distance, and shouted: "Y-o-u-u Tom!" There was a slight noise behind her and she turned just in time to seize a small boy by the slack of his roundabout and arrest his flight. "There! I might 'a' thought of that closet. What you been doing in there?" "Nothing." "Nothing! Look at your hands. And look at your mouth. What is that truck?" "I don't know, aunt." "Well I know. It's jam-that's what it is. Forty times I've said if you didn't let that jam alone I'd skin you. Hand me that switch." The switch hovered in the air-the peril was desperate- "My! Look behind you, aunt!" The old lady whirled around, and snatched her skirts out of danger. The lad fled, on the instant, scrambled up the high board fence, and disappeared over it. His aunt Polly stood surprised a moment, and then broke into a gentle laugh. "Hang the boy, can't I never learn anything? Ain't he played me tricks enough like that for me to be looking out for him by this time? But old fools is the biggest fools there is. Can't learn an old dog new tricks, as the saying is. But my goodness, he never plays them alike, two days, and how is a body to know what's coming? He 'pears to know just how long he can torment me before I