A highly unconventional and entertaining picture book told by a well-known fictional character: Huckleberry Finn. It is now he who writes about his author’s life, Mark Twain.
“Everyone knows the story of the raft on the Mississippi and that ol’ whitewashed fence, but now it’s time for youngins everywhere to get right acquainted with the man behind the pen. Mr. Mark Twain! An interesting character, he was… even if he did sometimes get all gussied up in linen suits and even if he did make it rich and live in a house with so many tiers and gazebos that it looked like a weddin’ cake. All that’s a little too proper and hog tied for our narrator, Huckleberry Finn, but no one is more right for the job of telling this picture book biography than Huck himself. (We’re so glad he would oblige.) And, he’ll tell you one thing—that Mr. Twain was a piece a work! Famous for his sense of humor and saying exactly what’s on his mind, a real satirist he was—perhaps America’s greatest. Ever. True to Huck’s voice, this picture book biography is a river boat ride into the life of a real literary treasure.”
Though it’s a picture book, younger readers will need it read aloud to them on account of Huck’s English, there are some real tongue-twisters, and there’s plenty for older readers to enjoy too. It will spark interest in Huck’s own story and perhaps lead readers to look on the art of writing in a new light.
Clare Cannon is editor of www.GoodReadingGuide.com and is the manager of Portico Books in Sydney.
