This is a sketch of Mark Twain in the charcoal left by a lantern. It is in the cave that Tom and Becky got lost in. And the cave where Injun Joe hid his money.



The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, is about a boy who is very imaginative and brave.



At the beginning of the book, his aunt gives him the chore of painting the fence. He tells the boys in the town that Tom is like 1 in 1,000 because very few people in the world can paint the fence as well, that’s why his aunt chose him. Naturally, every boy in town wants to see if they have the ability. They pay Tom with cool toys like marbles and dead cats tied to a string for admission to paint the fence. By the end of the day, the fence has multiple coats of paint, and his aunt who thinks that Tom did it on his own, is more than thrilled.



At one point Tom decided that he was going to be robber and that he was going to organize a gang of robbers. He told his friends all about they would rob people and kill them, but not the woman, they would hold the woman for ransom. Even though none of them new what ransom was. Tom imagined that he was going to rob some rich people of there elephants. As it turned out they just went to rile up some school children.



Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn are in a cemetery at 12pm one night. When they see people coming, they duck behind a cave stone. They watch as Injun Joe kills a man. A few weeks later, Tom rats out Injun Joe to the court during a trial. Injun Joe escapes while Tom is giving his testimony. Huck and Tom spy on Injun Joe and notice that he has a large sum of money that he is trying to hide. One day, when Tom and his girlfriend, Becky are in a cave, they get lost. Tom comes across Injun Joe who is hiding in the cave. When Tom and Becky finally get out a few days later, they discover that Injun Joe died in the cave. Huck and Tom go back into the cave, and find the money that Injun Joe hid. They split the money in half, and have a handsome sum of $6,000.00 each.



Tom needed to use a lot of imagination to achieve the things that he did throughout the book. Who would ever have thought of turning a chore to paint a fence into a profitable opportunity. And the robbery thing, pure imagination.



Tom was also very brave. He and Huck went into a graveyard at night and witnessed a murder. It was very brave to tell on Injun Joe, and Tom knew that if Injun Joe caught him again he would surely kill him.



This satire by mark twain makes you laugh at the imagination a kid can have.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer depicts the life of an imaginative, troublesome boy in the American West of the 1840s. The novel is intensely dramatic in its construction, taking the form of a series of comic vignettes based on Tom's exploits. These vignettes are linked together by a darker story that grows in importance throughout the novel, Tom's life-threatening entanglement with the murderer Injun Joe. ( )

I liked Huck Finn better, but was happy to finally read Tom Sawyer. ( )

I think Mark Twain is overrated. ( )

Tom Sawyer is poor boy. He doesn`t like school. Tom is very active boy. One night,Tom and his friend Huck decide to go to graveyard to see ghost. But instead of ghost, three man appeared in the graveyard....
This story is easy to read.I think Tom is very brave and Tom`s adventure is interesting. But this book`s last is not sstisfactory to me. ( )

Tom Sawyer was active.
So his adventure made me excited.
His life looked interesting and happy.
I would like to adventure with him. ( )

'Tom Sawyer' rates five stars as kiddie lit. Adults are apt to take a more jaundiced view of the book. To the grown-up mind 'TS' is completely contrived. Every one of its 274 pages is smeared with the same maudlin slop that coats the last 90 pages of 'Huckleberry Finn.'

Kids still love it. Read it to your little ones if you can stand 274 pages of abject insipidity. ( )

children's literature

I like Mark Twain.
I want to read books written by Mr Mark. ( )

This was my first book by Mark Twain.. and I liked it!! It's a great read.... you hardly see/hear such adventurous episodes now... the time and space for the kids is gone... Injun Joe epsiode is little too harsh on the Tom and Huck but that adds more real touch to it.

it's very addictive reading.. can't stop until you finish the book. It's got all the right things in a book - lots of adventures, mischief, childhood romance, conviction! Great read. I must read Huckleberry Finn whenever possible. ( )

The title is pretty self-explanatory - although I read this book at least 5 years ago, I still remember loving it. The dialogue was slightly difficult for me to get through at the time, but it was everything a book should have: great characters, coherent storyline, and good narrative. ( )

I can't think of any brilliant reason for it, but I liked this book.
I'm a goober. Except not really. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer are a whole lot more fun when you're an innocent child. There's capers, frolics, parties and romance. (As long as you ignore the whole Injun Joe sideline) That makes me shallow? Cool. ( )

This was my first Mark Twain read. My sister hates his books so I thought I should read one to see why. I can understand why she doesn't like his style of writing, but I rather liked it! I envy Tom's childhood, except the whole being stalked by a murderer bit. He had lots of fun and its cool that Tom's character is based on other boys Mr. Twain knew and his own childhood. ( )

Tom Sawyer is one of the book read as a child by many, considered a "children's book", but also written with an adult point of view. The author was a travel writer and the geographic setting is frequently mentioned. For many it is an introduction to the connections of the states bordering the Mississippi. This particular edition offers an excellent introduction by Mark Seelye. ( )

AMAZON- "From the famous episodes of the whitewashed fence and the ordeal in the cave to the trial of Injun Joe, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is redolent of life in the Mississippi River towns in which Twain spent his own youth. A somber undercurrent flows through the high humor and unabashed nostalgia of the novel, however, for beneath the innocence of childhood lie the inequities of adult reality—base emotions and superstitions, murder and revenge, starvation and slavery "

A classic tale of "boys will be boys". Personally, I preferred this to Huck Finn -- it's more genuine fun and adventure, without so much social commentary thrown at you as well. Highly recommended for young readers. ( )

Excellent humor. Twain is pure wit and humor. The language carries you away. Oh, and if you think this is for young boys (it can be), you are mistaken. I really believe adults will get much more out of it than any young teen. ( )

Tom Sawyer is a typical Southern boy looking for adventure. I don't think there are many young boys that would skin a cat or fake his own death so that he might attend the funeral, but the mischief of such a boy has always been there...and will always be there, too! Tom lives with his auntie and while he is well loved he is always looking for ways to run away. His sidekick, Huck Finn is eager to join him in adventures "down river." Both are "smarties" as my grandfather would say. Showing off for their peers, and besting the adults -there is never a dull moment in Tom Sawyer's world. ( )

The beginning of all the Tom and Huck adventures, with the boy Tom Sawyer who befriends Huck Finn, and creates mischief all over town and in school, before coming into a large fortune of money.

I enjoyed this story more than I did Adventures of Huck Finn, however they were both about the same, except one boy is mannered and the other is wild, and their adventures of are different sorts.

It’s hard to see why this one didn’t make it on the 1,001 Books list when Huck Finn did, as they are both amazing journey’s.

This novel is full of high adventure of the kind that has disappeared for most children today. Tom and friends are full of imaginative play that they carry out in the wooded areas around their town. They play hooky and trade in junk and have all kinds of superstitious explanations for the world around them. While this book doesn't have any profound themes, it pictures of way of life, mostly gone, in such vivid detail that it seems to come to life again. ( )

Very Good, well written and funny. There is a reason why it is a classic. ( )

Synopsis:

Tom Sawyer is a naughty boy from St. Petersburg (fictional), Missouri, who is always engaged in troublesome adventures with his friends, specially with Huckleberry Finn, causing her Aunt Polly to go mad. He lazily attends school and never misses a chance to be envied by his schoolmates for his heroic mischiefs. Despite his misbehavior, he's a good-hearted young man.

Personal Opinion:

What a read! I was a great fan of the animated series when I was a child (and nowadays, of course) but had never read the book. I was really looking forward to do it, and when the moment came I was trully moved by the story, its characters and everything. That's what I call a masterpiece!

The book is structured in chapters that can be seen as almost independent stories. Every chapter deals with different adventures based on situations lived by some of the author's schoolmates. Actually, Mark Twain based the boys on this novel on some of them, sometimes merging two or three boys into one.

Tom, as a character, brings you back to the days when all of us were dreaming all day long about doing fantastic things; those times when petty troubles seemed to turn your life into something miserable. That's a feeling commonly reflected during the novel, and it's truly genuine.

In addition, the dialogs are boyish (as it must be) and doesn't fail to present the reader with the social reality of those days (back in the 19th Century). Slavery is not a main point in this novel, but it's easy to grasp its social consideration.

Being a classic as it is, there's not a lot to say about Tom Sawyer that hasn't yet been said. I'd like to quote the author, though, who on the preface points that: "Although my book is intended mainly for the entertainment of boys and girls, I hope it will not be shunned by men and women on that account, for part of my plan has been to try to pleasantly remind adults of what they once were themselves, and what queer enterprises they sometimes engaged in." Mission more than accomplished Mr. Twain. Henceforth: ( )

A wonderful novel that in some ways reads like short stories. Tom is always breaking the rules, scamming and cheating, but benignly and never malevolently. He is a wonderful boy that reminds adults what it should be like to be a child.

Ah, Tom. Wonderful story and characterization by Twain, as usual. I read this when I was very, very young and had little interaction with any boys, so it was eye-opening for me. I loved all the characters in this book and I remember wishing I could have the same adventures, yet being a southern girl born in the '50s, I felt it was so far out of the question that it aroused quite a bit of jealousy for me. Thank goodness I managed to overcome that mindset! ( )

I've read Tom Sawyer a couple of times through the years--but another reading just seemed a good way to wrap up 2008 . This enjoyable and immensely popular classic tale from one of America's greatest writers was first published in 1876. Talk about memorable characters: Tom, Huck Finn, Aunt Polly, Becky Thatcher, Injun Joe, et al!

In the second chapter (the famous fence whitewashing episode where Tom is able to get all the neighborhood boys to do his assigned job, painting Aunt Polly's fence, by making it a thing of sheer enjoyment), Twain makes this observation: "Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and . . . play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do. . . . There are wealthy gentlemen in England who drive four-horse passenger-coaches twenty or thirty miles on a daily line, in the summer, because the privilege costs them considerable money; but if they were offered wages for the service, that would turn it into work and then they would resign." How true is that! ( )