River Boy: The Story of Mark Twain

by William Anderson, Dan Andreasen (Illustrator)

Overview

The story of the life of Mark Twain, by the same author/illustrator team that brought us the remarkable picture book biography Pioneer Girl. This nonfiction picture book is an excellent choice to share during homeschooling, in particular for children ages 6 to 8. It’s a fun way to learn to read and as a supplement for activity books for children.

Along the banks of the great Mississippi River, a young boy named Samuel Clemens raced to the docks whenever he heard that familiar cry. He dreamed of exploring the world beyond his river town. Little did he know that one day he would become the famous writer Mark Twain, and write about his boyhood adventures along the bustling river waterfront in the classic stories The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Now noted historian William Anderson tells the colorful story of Sam's life as he grows from a mischievous boy into the enterprising author. Dan Andreasen's fresh, vibrant paintings capture the spirit of the storyteller who will live on forever as one of America's literary icons.

  

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780060284008
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	02/18/2003
Edition description:	1ST
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 11.34(h) x 0.37(d)
Lexile:	AD880L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

William Anderson is a historian, educator, and author of twenty-five books of biography, travel, and history. His groundbreaking research on Laura Ingalls Wilder and her books led to many HarperCollins titles, including Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Biography, Laura Ingalls Wilder Country, and A Little House Sampler. He has also written for Travel & Leisure, the Saturday Evening Post, the Christian Science Monitor, and many other national magazines. Anderson is a frequent speaker at conferences, schools, and libraries. He makes his home in Michigan.

Dan Andreasen has illustrated many well-loved books for children, including River Boy: The Story of Mark Twain and Pioneer Girl: The Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder, both by William Anderson, as well as many titles in the Little House series. He lives with his family in Medina, Ohio.

Editorial Reviews

The pictures have an appealing luminescent quality. A perfect introductory biography.” — School Library Journal

“Andreasen’s burnished paintings capture the gold of imagination and memory.” — Booklist

From the Publisher

Andreasen’s burnished paintings capture the gold of imagination and memory.

Booklist

Andreasen’s burnished paintings capture the gold of imagination and memory.

Booklist

Anderson and Andreasen (previously paired for Pioneer Girl) spotlight Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, in this attractive but ultimately disappointing picture book. The author describes Sam's boyhood, spent along the banks of the Mississippi River, through his stints as a printer and steamboat pilot, gold miner and newspaper reporter to his successful career as a novelist and lecturer. However, he presumes a prior acquaintance with Twain's work. For example, he reports that young Sam was punished once by being made to whitewash a fence but tricked his friends into doing the work; yet Anderson never spells out the connection with Tom Sawyer. The prose slips occasionally into clich ("The hiss of the steam and the call of the whistle on the Mississippi River tugged at Sam's heart"). Twain's witticisms are quoted only once or twice, and his voice stays muted. Andreasen's paintings help transcend the shortcomings of the text. He conjures a Rockwellian era of barefoot boys in straw hats and suspenders, and evokes the romance of the Mississippi in evocative endpapers that show a steamboat chugging up an inky blue river. Ages 7-10. (Mar.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Gr 3-5-This engaging, anecdotal biography will acquaint readers with some of Clemens's own boyish exploits, which eventually became memorable moments in the lives of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Clemens is portrayed as an adventuresome, fun-loving person who, from an early age, became an expert at exploring new venues, and who became a great writer and humorist despite the fact that his formal education ended at age 12. The people in Andreasen's illustrations have the same round-cheeked, homespun look as those found in Norman Rockwell's paintings. The pictures have a softness that suggests an earlier time, and many of them have an appealing luminescent quality. A chronology on the endpapers lists key events in Clemens's life. For a younger audience than Kathryn Lasky's equally well-written A Brilliant Streak: The Making of Mark Twain (Harcourt, 1998), River Boy has only one flaw: the lack of source notes or bibliography to substantiate the anecdotal information. Otherwise, it is a perfect introductory biography that will appeal to both children and teachers.-Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Anderson, best known for his studies of Laura Ingalls Wilder, introduces another American original with this anecdotal profile. Though the author covers Clemens's entire life, from curly-haired youth watching Mississippi steamboats dock to white-suited, cigar-smoking pundit, he focuses most closely on Clemens's childhood-particularly on incidents that later appeared in his novels, such as the famous whitewashing caper-and on his spectacular public career as writer, yarn-spinner, and celebrity. Capped by an atmospheric final scene of Halley's Comet glowing in the sky over a twilight river, Andreasen's (Love Song for a Baby, 2002, etc.) polished, golden-toned historical tableaus give Clemens's life an idyllic air it certainly lacked in its later stages, but the warmth they add will effectively draw readers into the great humorist's world. Still, next to Kathryn Lasky's A Brilliant Streak: The Making of Mark Twain, illustrated by Barry Moser (1998), the art and writing both come off as bland fare, competent but ordinary. (chronology) (Picture book/biography. 7-9)

Kirkus Reviews