Tom Sawyer (Classic Stories) (Landoll Classics) (Bring the Classics to Life: Level 2 (Audio)) (Usborne Classics Retold) (Famous Stories Book, #2) (All-action Classics, #2) (Real Reads (Library)) (Real Reads) (All-Action Classics (Pb), #2) (Clasicos Para Ninos) (Go Classics - Set 1, #2) (Historias de Siempre (Paperback)) (Great Little Classics) (Raintree Short Classics)

by Mark Twain

[Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews]

When I was eleven, and a new resident of Missouri my family made a weekend trip to Hannibal, the boyhood home of Samuel Clemens AKA Mark Twain. You would think as a reader, I would have loved this, and at first I was excited. However, that excitement ended soon after we arrived. We toured the Becky Thatcher Cave, Mark Twain's house and viewed the fence that inspired one of the best known scenes in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer before lunchtime. After refusing to ride the Choo-Choo "Twain" we were ready to call it a day. It put a sour taste in my mouth for Mark Twain.

Earlier this year I listened to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer read by Nick Offerman. Maybe it was due to my childhood experience or the fact that I'm not a nine-year-old boy but I thought it was a snooze-fest. I found Tom to be an annoying little brat and wouldn't have been the least bit sorry if he had actually died in that cave.

Nick Offerman was the book's saving grace. His telling of Tom's adventures kept my ears occupied and the story moving along.

However, it was not enough to save the book for me and at the novel's close I was just as enthusiastic as I was to ride the Choo-Choo Twain.

This review was originally posted on First Impressions Reviews