Lovin' some Tom Sawyer

I love sharing great literature with my family. Part of the fun of reading a great book together over a few weeks is "living in it" during that time; pretending to be favorite characters, making up voices, or reminiscing over comical or poignant scenes.

This spring we read Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer as a family. It made for a lot of laughter, and also an awareness of satire and irony, which I truly appreciate in my kids! The one thing that was a mixed blessing, though, was that the mischief factor seemed to go way up during our time with Tom. For example, as I have shared before, Josiah decided one night to lock the bathroom from the inside and shut the door. It took us quite sometime to unlock the aged lock from the outside, and we asking him irritably why he did such a thing. He shrugged, of course, and said, "Seems like sumthin' Tom Sawyer would do." There were other antics involving creatures, bare feet, scaring girls, etc. Anyway, Tom was somewhat of a hero to the boy, apparently, as he lived an enviable life of adventure.

I had kind of forgotten this aspect of the book when I checked out the audio version (unabridged and dramatized!) from the library the other day. The kids started listening to it while drawing, and were once again  laughing and enjoying Tom's world. After an hour listening period today the girls came into the dining room for lunch. "Mom, do Becky Thatcher and Tom get married?" said Eva. "No, the book doesn't go that far, don't you remember?" I said. "Yes, I remember, I just thought there would be a sequel." she said. "No, there is just Huck Finn, which is not so much about Tom Sawyer." "Man, I really wish there was a sequel. He should write one." "Mark Twain?! He's been dead for many years!" At this point Josiah came into the room. "What!!" he said, looking truly alarmed. "Who's dead?!!" "The author." I said. "Mark Twain." "Oh." he said, breathing a sigh of relief. "Whew! I thought you meant Tom Sawyer!" I didn't say anything- just smiled! We have never believed in Santa Claus around here, but Tom Sawyer... at that point I just couldn't break it to him! Let his literary friend live on forever.