As I'm sifting and creating the Tom Sawyer book adventure for "Jump Into A Book", I've found myself laughing,loving, and living inside the pages of this Mark Twain masterpiece and above all else classic piece of american literature.
Oftentimes I've thought of Mark Twain as the same thing as Tom Saywer but when I really started to think about it, I didn't know much about the infamous Mark Twain so I went searching for a little information and came upon a picture biography about his daughter who just happened to be his biographer.
"This is a frank biographer and an honest one" she uses no sandpaper on me." Mark Twain
Susy was Mark Twain's 13 year old daughter who felt that people didn't really know her father. Even those people who had read all of his books, attended all of his lectures, and considered themselves "experts".
So this precocious 13 year old set out to set the record straight and secretly wrote her own biography of her father Mark Twain.
" He has a keen sense of the ludicrous, notices funny stories and incidents, knows how to tell them, to improve upon them, and does not forget them....But still he is more interested in earnest books and earnest subjects." ~ Susy Clemmons
This lovely book written by Barbara Kerley, with it's great prose ,not only gives us a peak into the life of Samuel Clemmons aka Mark Twain but on how to write a biography. This book seamlessly blends the life of the Clemmons family and takes us on a journey into the life of Mark Twain.
Edwin Fotheringham, the illustrator, really caught the fun that Mark Twain and Susy shared in their lives. The illustrations are fantastic and I love the use of "colonial" colors. I really feel that these were the types of colors being used in the 19th century. In the middle of each double page fold is a little journal with an exerpt from Susy's journal about her father. These illustrations really bring Barbara's great writing to life.
Samuel Clemmons who's pen name was Mark Twain was known for many books but especially for "Tom Saywer" and "Huckleberry Finn.
After sharing this book together, you too will discover that anyone can write a biography with a little observation. why not start right now? Barbara Kerley, the author has this wonderful printable page with the very easy guidelines to "Writing an Extraordinary Biography" . It's also in the back of the book.
As always with a Barbara Kerley book, it's an experience and not just a story. Enjoy!
