The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

by Nick Bullard (Adapted By), Mark Twain

Tom Sawyer does not like school. He does not like work, and he never wants to get out of bed in the morning. But he likes swimming and fishing, and having adventures with his friends. And he has a lot of adventures. One night, he and his friend Huck Finn go to the graveyard to look for ghosts.
They don't see any ghosts that night. They see something worse than a ghost - much, much worse...

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Adventure, Childrens, Classic Literature, Historical Fiction, School

64 pages

First published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[Jessaka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cake Mixes and Bibles

I tried reading this book years ago, but I never got past Tom’s picket fence painting scam. This time I finished the book. He was very clever in getting the neighbor kids to paint the fence for him by telling them that it was fun. What a little con, I thought, and in this story, he often was just that, a con. Maybe he grew out of it.

I love to paint the inside and outside of houses, and I love painting much of anything that needs painting, but I can’t imagine getting any joy out of painting a picket fence. Too tedious. This story reminded me of the time that I was painting the front porch of our old house at 506 Oaks Street in Paso Robles, CA. I was twelve or so at the time. It was the Sabbath, not that that mattered, and not that I even knew it at the time. My friend, Pat DeBusk, came up the hill to visit with me. She must have been to church because she knew that it was a Sunday. “You are not suppose to be working on the Sabbath,” she let me know. I didn’t know that I was working, and if I was, it didn’t matter. I don’t recall my answer to her. Her mom didn’t even cook on that day. How do you get around cooking? Isn’t heating up yesterday’s food, still working?

Well, the first part of this book was boring to me, and when I wasn’t reading it, I was trying to analyze why. I loved the movie but not the book. Maybe, it is the way he wrote. If some modern writer had written it, maybe I would have loved it. I mean, the story is great, but it is Twain. I didn’t like “Huckleberry Finn” or “Roughing it.” either. Yet, at least in “Finn: I loved the idea of taking a raft with a slave and trying to save him.

The story picked up when Tom and Huck went to the cemetery one night. What they were doing there I don’t recall, but even I went to a cemetery one night with a friend. Kids just like to do that sort of thing. It was then that they learned of Indian Joe’s doings. It was then that a man got killed. It was then, in my own mind, that this book went from a two-star read to a three-stare read, which meant that I liked the book but not enough to ever read it again.

There was another story in this book that reminded me of something that had happened in my own childhood: Tom had traded trinkets with kids for tickets so he could win a prize at church. What he won was a bible. Maybe, I thought, he could trade the bible for a dead rat, since he wasn’t into religion. Well, I thought of my classmate in high school may have read this book. One year we had an Easter egg hunt in the city park where the old library stood. I won second prize and received a child’s box of cake mix with mini baking dishes. Benny Hall won first prize, a large Easter basket with all kinds of goodies in it. The next day the news at school was that Benny’s friends had given him their eggs for a share in the winnings. Years later, at my high school reunion, I was standing in line behind Benny and we got to talking and laughing about the Easter egg hunt, and he apologized and said that he didn’t want to share his basket with the kids, so they chased him home. I don’t recall if they caught him or not.

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A timeless classic in a kid-friendly, easy-to-read, illustrated format. What's not to like?

[beatrice · Rating 1 out of 5]

racism <3 not even surprised they made an indigenous person a villain in this. f u mark twain

[Michael S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Personal Response
I thought this was a really good book because there was a lot of non-stop action. You never really knew what was going to happen next. This was one of those book where you would start reading and not want to stop reading it.

Plot Summary
This book was about a boy named Tom Sawyer and his friend Huckleberry Finn. Tom was a young boy who just liked to have fun with his friends. Tom and Huck got into trouble when they saw Injun Joe commit a murder. Tom and Huck where scared because of what they saw and did not want to get killed. They found out Joe had a bunch of treasure and wanted to find it. They found out Joe was in these caves hiding his treasure. They locked off the caves because of people getting lost and Joe was still inside. Tom and Huck went back to the caves and found Joe dead then went looking for the treasure. They found the treasure and brought it back home. Tom and Huck split it in half and they each put there half in the bank.

Characterization
Tom started as just a boy who wanted to have fun. He liked to go on adventures with his friend Huckleberry Finn. After they witnessed a murder, they both realized how scary the world can be. Tom started to mature a little but still liked to adventure. After he and his girlfriend got stuck in the cave I think he matured a lot because of the responsibility he had of taking care of her. In my opinion he really matured throughout the book.

Recommendation
I would recommend this book to kids who like adventure and exploration. This would be a good book for middle school and high schoolers because it has a good story line and is long. This is also a good book if you like pictures while you read to help you visualize the scene that is going on.

[Logan Bartel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Personal Response
I liked this book because it was about a person I could kind of relate to. I also liked how there was multiple adventures in the book so it didn't get boring with just one the entire time. It was also very easy to read which was nice.

Plot Summary
This book is about a boy named Tom Sawyer. Tom is a young country boy that lives for adventures. He has many interesting adventures throughout the book with his friends. He gets lost in a cave, finds buried treasure, and is even witnessed a murder. The book follow Tom through these adventures and many other ones too.

Recommendation
I would recommend this book to people who aren't the best readers. This book was fairly easy to read so I think it would be perfect for them. I also think that country people would like this because they could relate to the main character.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

The details of what Twain thought were amusements for boys, like playing pirate, going on adventures, sneaking in and out of the house after dark, trading bugs, marbles and other treasures, and even attending their own funerals, after they went on a 3 day adventure without telling anyone, and were assumed drowned, can be amusing. The racial prejudices that are slung out casually are very jarring, and not easy to overlook, especially a week after George Floyd was murdered by a white cop.

This is not the edition I listed to, but no audio versions, or even unadapted versions are available on Goodreads.

[Nerea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es un buen libro para que los niños empiecen a aprender inglés de una forma amena y con un vocabulario bastante básico.
Este librito ha caído en mi poder por casualidad y la verdad es que la picardía del protagonista ha hecho que me interese por querer leerme el libro completo de Tom Sawyer.

Tiene ilustraciones en blanco y negro que ayudan a la comprensión de la lectura, un pequeño glosario al final y unas actividades (para antes, durante y después de leerlo) que pondrán a prueba su atención en la lectura.
Recomendable para niveles A1 y A2 de inglés.

[Shreyan Das · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely perfect book marred only by a fleeting mention of orgies (😂) which tarnishes the innocence of juvenility.

Profound in boyish adventures and still thinly coated with Twain's signature philosophy. A book which took me back to my own childhood and made me relive days of carefreeness and mischief.
Young or old, this book's for you.

[خلود · Rating 3 out of 5]

it's good
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/sample/...

[Kieran · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like it because tom has a cat named pete

[Riley Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tom Sawyer Book Review
Author of Book: Mark Twain
Review written by: Riley
Genre: Classic
Tom Sawyer is a troublemaker. He gets in trouble and is,ordered by Aunt Polly, to paint their fence. When his friends see him painting the fence, Tom pretends to be having fun to make his friends jealous. He tricks his friends into giving him stuff in order to have a turn painting. A new girl moves into town named Becky. Tom and Becky like each other but Becky is really mad when she finds out that Tom liked someone else before.Tom most of the time, is getting in trouble with his friend, Huckleberry Finn. They both sneak out to a graveyard at night, where they see a murder take place. Injun Joe murders a the town doctor: Dr. Robinson.
Tom, Huckeleberry, and Joe, run away on a deserted island for a few weeks. By the time they get back, they find themselves witnessing their own funeral. Later on, Tom testifies in court about the murder of Dr. robison. Then, Injun Joe escapes and Tom fears he may never see tomorrow. Tom and Huck are hunting for treasure one night, they discover that Injun Joe, has treasure that he is going to bury. Huck spies on Injun Joe to see where he buries the treasure, while Tom goes on a picnic with his class to a Cave. During the picnic, Tom and Becky wander off and get lost.
Huck figures out that Injun Joe plans on hurting Widow Douglas. He reports the crime and Injun Joe runs away to a Cave. Meanwhile, Tom and Becky are lost for several days in the cave. Eventually they stumble across Injun Joe, but hide before he sees them. Shortly after, Tom figures out how to get out of the cave with Becky. He tells Judge Thatcher about Injun Joe being inside and the town decides to seal Injun Joe inside the cave.
Later, Tom returns to the cave, where he discovers Injun Joe's starved dead body. Shortly after, he and Huck discover where Injun Joe hid his gold. Widow Douglas adopts Huck. He hates living in a house and having to wear nice clothes and always be polite. Tom tells him to just give it a try, saying that it won't stop them from getting to sneak outside every once in a while.
I absolutely love classic books like these. They are some of my favorites. I like this book because it had some old literature, but it also had mystery, action, and suspense. I like Tom’s character because of the way he always bribes and tricks people into doing things for his benefit. Mark Twain is one of my favorite writers ever. I love his style of writing. If only there was like one million of his books!

[Gauryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It seemed a bit easier than "Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp", which I read last time.
There were almost no unfamiliar words or expressions.
Because the story is short, it flowed with a sense of urgency throughout.
It was also quite entertaining. I recommend this book to absolute beginners in English.

[07jordanm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Title: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Author: Deidre S. Laiken (Adapter)

Summary:
Tom Sawyer is a mischievous kid always up to no good. He is always lying, getting people to do his work for him, and much more. But one day he decides to run away after he falls in love with the new girl Becky Thatcher. He persuades her to get "engaged" to him. Their romance falls rapidly after Becky finds out Tom has already been "engaged" to a girl named Amy Lawrence. After being ignored by Becky Tom decides to head to the graveyard with his best friend Huckleberry Finn. As they get to the graveyard they witness the murder of Dr Robinson. The murderer of this crime is a man named Injun Joe. Scared Tom and Huck runaway. They then swear on an oath of blood not to tell a single person about this. Injun blames the crime on his companion Muff Potter who was drunk when all this happened. Potter is then arrested and this gets Tom very guilty for he really knew what happened. During the trial Tom's guilt is too much and he tell on Injun Joe. Before anyone can do anyting Injun Joe runs out of court and gets away.
Summer arrives, and Tom and Huck go searching for buried treasure at a haunted house. As they are searching upstairs they hear a loud noise from down stairs. They look downstairs and they see Injun Joe and a new companion burying some of there treasure they had stolen. This leads to a whole new adventure.

I rate this story 4 stars. It was a really good story but not quite a five star book.

This book is a very good adventure book. I would recommend it to anyone who likes good adventure. It is a very good read and is not at all boring. It is a very exciting book and very intense. If you like adventure and action you will really like this book.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ah, "Tom Sawyer". The story of a kid from St.
Petersburg, Missouri, who usually gets into nothing but
trouble. However, there are many other things we find out about him as well. He witnesses a murder, committed by Injun Joe, and doesn't tell, yet, for fear of being killed himself.
He also falls in love with Judge Thatcher's niece, and goes through some pretty rough times in his relationship with her. Also, he cons other kids to do his chores while he eats an apple.

This book was very funny in some parts (i.e., the whitewashing of the fence was funny, as was Tom's other antics). However, it was very serious in others (i.e., Tom witnessing a murder). The book also reminded me of some certain things I did to impress my first girlfriend
in Junior High. As a reader (even though I'll probably never get around to even half the stuff Tom does in the span of a couple hundred pages), I find it easy to relate to something in this book. This is a book that keeps you begging for more, even when you're done. Though it's set in post-Civil War times, I am pretty certain we all can relate to at least one of the things Tom goes through as a child.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yet another "read aloud" with my Grandson (age 7). These Classic Illustrated editions are just perfect for his age, though we do stop from time to time to talk a bit about specific words or items outside his frame of reference such as "intricate" or how dark it really is in caves when you have no light and how a ball of string is a "clue".

I was briefly disappointed that Laiken changed the scene about Tom's note to Aunt Polly. In Twain's version, Aunt Polly, though tempted to reach into Tom's jacket to find the note, did not with the thought: "It's a lie. But it's a blessed lie." That was one of my favorite parts of the original. We talked about it a little bit, and the variation was lost on him, and he liked the story anyway.

This is a great chapter book for early readers. The chapters are brief and the pace is fast, and Tom's quirky desire for adventure is certainly enticing after all these generations.

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading to my reluctant reader can feel like a waste of time. After all, he is capable of picking up a book and reading it on his own. I books I want to read too.

Then again the goal is to get him to enjoy reading.

Reading to him has become a routine, an event, that he looks forward to. He is always thinking of the next book we are going to share. Those books are different from the ones he reads at school and which are part of the class reading club. And by different, I don't mean that they are different titles. It is just that these books under my "read with your child" heading are a shared experience. It is a more relaxed activity than reading for homework. We pick the books out together and start and stop as we please. We discuss the story and characters as we go along and take the adventure together.

[Keishon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The adventures of Tom Sawyer by, Mark Twain is a kind of a intresting book, I did not find it very boring nor did I find it very great as others describe the book.
I coould definitley can compare this book to a few, for example the book the Diary of Whimpy kid. I think the similarities in between the two books is the mischief these characters get into the only diffrence is that " Tom Sawyer" gets in a bit more trouble. For the most part these to books are similar.
I like this book it was funny in it's own way, I also like how "Twain" made his characters so realistic, and how you could connect or even relate to them so well. I would recommend this book to anyone that likes adventure books.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found it hard to properly rate this. I recently bought 12 of the Illustrated Classics books for my daughters. Since I was already reading Huckleberry Finn, I though I would read the Illustrated Classics Tom Sawyer as a quick catch-up, Cliffs Notes, summary.
There is a lot of detail and complexity that is drained from these abridged versions, but they do provide a clear summary of the key plot and characters.
They are great for a young age because they are simple and quick to read. They keep attention but still share important stories.
Tom Sawyer brings another level of complexity to the worth of the “boys will be boys” story. He is not a great character to admire but not really untrue to his origin. It is a good history for this period and place.

[Paul Hardin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this version of Mark Twain's classic story of a boy who gets into a lot of trouble. I think for me, I would use this book in my classroom not only when discussing history and what life might have been like, but when deciding and teaching children the difference between right and wrong. Tom Sawyer always seems to find himself in tough spots but yet always manages to get himself out of them. I would try to convey to my students that although it may be fun to break rules, and struggle to get out of sticky situations, following the rules would not lead you to be in those situations. I also would use these books to help stretch the kids' imagination.

[Alex Tieplinsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. The Genre of the book is a action and adventure novel. The book is about a young boy growing up along the banks of the Mississippi River in 1876. The story takes place in a fictional town of St. Petersburg, Missouri which was inspired by Hannibal, Missouri. I'm rating this book 4 out of 5 stars. The story is a constant thriller with ups and downs, and wild action. It's main characters, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, are the best of friends that set out to find hidden treasure belonging to a close friend injun joe. Tom and Huck soon start to learn that they're not the only people looking for the hidden treasure.

[Amy Meyers · Rating 3 out of 5]

My third graders read this for literature for the weeks on "USA" scheduled in MFW ECC. I've got no problem with these Great Illustrated Classics. I know they lose all the glory of the author's language, but they interest my children in the classics, and the plots are still worthy. We're not too snobby for them. My older boys were reading the unabridged version by Twain, so the differences in prose were obvious, but the story was still very enjoyable to the younger in the GIC version. They read ahead of their school assignments to see what would happen.

[Sherria Parchman-Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fiction Tradition Tale grades 2-6
In my opinion this book could have been better, yet it was full of detail and it had a decent plot although the character were not very descriptive. I wouldn't recommend this book for a struggling reader due to the complexity of the words, all it would do is frustrate them more. Tom was a trickster a kid that always found a way to get out of doing work, even if it meant tricking others to do his work for him. Yet, one day When Tom got caught being manipulative. It is better to be honest, fair, and earn everything the right way instead of being a swindler.

[Scott Goddard · Rating 4 out of 5]

One day in the not-so-distant past, I was searching for something new to read. Without a particular book in mind, I decided to go ahead and pick a random one. Indeed, this random book happened to turn out to be this title. It took some time to finish, but I'm happy I did. Its a riveting tale about a group of young boys who are, let's say, quite unruly and boisterous, but at the same time, and paradoxically so, sweet and caring. The events that unfold are all sewn together well, and the flow of the story is like that of a gushing river.

[jacky · Rating 3 out of 5]

This edition is the highly adapted and revised children's illustrated version. My students are about to start reading Huck Finn in a couple of weeks. I read aloud to them this version of Tom Sawyer to help them get to know Tom, Huck, and the other characters as well as the setting. A lot of the beauty of the writing is gone, but it was fun reading the exciting parts, like the murder, Injun Joe jumping through the window, and when the money is found.

[Jered Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of my favorite books.It was full of detail and had a great plot. It makes me feel like was at my grandma's house when I read this. It is a perfect adventure book for everyone. You will read then the next thing you know, you won't be able to stop reading. It's about a boy that likes to go on adventures. He gets into trouble a lot of the time. This is a highly recommended book. You will be interested in this author's books.

[Ethan Hasibuan30574 · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer wasn't really a good book. One reason why is that, It's plot wasn't good because it wasn't descriptive about it's setting and characters. Also, the book didn't have a lot of complex words. Another reason why I didn't think it wasn't a good book is because it wasn't a book that had me on the edge of my seat. If the book was more descriptive I would've liked the book a little bit. The book could of been way better in my opinion.

[Miriam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Never really enjoyed Mark Twain's books, honestly. Too much lying and focus on worldly things and the characters never really learn... well, at least to a certain extent. I think, though, that it's good that Tom finally tells the truth for some things and takes care of Becky when they are in the cave. I must admit, that even though I don't approve of a lot of his actions, Tom is very creative and witty.

[Erin Rhyne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good abridged version of the story, perfectly packaged for my 8 year old who absolutely loved it. He certainly identifies and is enamored with the character of Tom Sawyer, as so many kids are. Mark Twain was truly a literary genius in many ways, and character development was his greatest strength. If you’re looking for a good version of the story for young kids, this one certainly fits the bill.

[JenniferR · Rating 5 out of 5]

I realy liked this book. I was actually suprised at how much i realy got into it. I would recommend this book to anyone becuse it was esy to read and was actually very interesting. I think Mark Twain is a very good author and i want to read more of his writing. What i learned from this book was that friends are something everyone should have just incase you get into trouble.

[Backtobooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book for the first time when I was 12 so it was a reread for me but I never knew this book had so much adventure murder and buried treasure and the relationship between Becky and Tom is unique because jealousy in Becky sometimes plays hard to get but it is a good book overall and I'm glad I reread it.