AudioFile Earphones Award Winner This humorous and nostalgic novel takes the listener back to the carefree days of boyhood in Hannibal, Missouri, where Mark Twain grew up. Just what did boys do in a small Midwestern town during the mid-1800s, a time when there were no televisions, no arcades, and no videos? They whitewashed fences, floated down rivers, traded marbles, formed secret societies, smoked pipes, and, on occasion, managed to attend their own funerals. Yes, they may have been a bit mischievous, but as Aunt Polly said of Tom when she believed him to be dead, 'He was the best-hearted boy that ever was.' Aunt Polly's sentiments reveal a cardinal tenet of Twain's philosophy: In this deceitful and infirm world, innocence can be found only in the heart of a boy. 'Gardner highlights all the virtues of Twain's prose: that sly sense of humor, those deep insights into the human heart….'--AudioFile 'Gardner's reading of Twain's classic convinces us why certain titles remain in the pantheon of must-reads (and must-listens).'--Booklist '[Gardner] makes listeners pay attention to the words as well as the action….His forte is interpretation.'--Kliatt --. MARK TWAIN, pseudonym of Samuel L. Clemens (1835-1910), was born in Florida, Missouri. A printer and later a Mississippi riverboat pilot, he adopted his pen name from riverboat lingo for water two fathoms deep. His masterpieces about Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn are classic humorous writings that also provide a graphic picture of nineteenth-century America. Used Book in Good Condition