Mark Twain

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Penguin Readers Level 2: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (ELT Graded Reader)

Penguin Readers Level 2: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (ELT Graded Reader)

The Prince and the Pauper

The Stolen White Elephant

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court

Can-Cans, Cats and Cities of Ash

Pudd'nhead Wilson

The Innocents Abroad

A Tramp Abroad

This classic story will stay with you through life, and always remind you of the things that you knew were important when you first read it

Whet juvenile appetites with Tom, his entrepreneurial spirit and his taste for treasure-hunting adventure. A paean to true boyhood

The language is hard to begin with but the hero is one of the most endearing in literature

Twain had a gift for reliving the innermost feelings of growing up, the insecurity, fears and hopes that lie beneath the swagger that young boys maintain. He turned them into literature

Tom and Huck Finn are as immortal as their swashbuckling friendship

So what makes these different to any other set of classics? In a moment of inspiration Random House had the bright idea of actually asking Key stage 2 children what extra ingredients they could add to make children want to read. And does it work? Well, put it this way...my 13-year-old daughter announced that she had to read a book over the summer holiday and, without any prompting, spotted The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas...and proceeded to read it! Now, if you knew my 13-year-old daughter, you would realise that this is quite remarkable. She reads texts, blogs and tags by the thousand - but this is the first book she has read since going to high school, so all hail Vintage Classics!

National Association for the Teaching of English

Read this 19th-century childhood adventure story that confronts the reality of racism in America. 
 
 'There comes a time in every boy's life when when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure' 
 
Impish, daring young Tom Sawyer is a hero to his friends and a torment to his relations. For wherever there is mischief or adventure, Tom is at the heart of it. During one hot summer, Tom witnesses a murder, runs away to be a pirate, attends his own funeral, rescues an innocent man from the gallows, searches for treasure in a haunted house, foils a devilish plot and discovers a box of gold. But can he escape his nemesis, the villainous Injun Joe? 
 
BACKSTORY: Find out some fascinating facts about the author and have a go at a game of marbles!

An immortal story of friendship between two boys: the daring, mischeivous and loyal Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn

Mark Twain's real name was Sam Clemens, and he was born in 1835 in a small town on the Mississippi, one of seven children. He smoked cigars at the age of eight, and aged nine he stowed away on a steamboat. He left school at 11 and worked at a grocery store, a bookstore, a blacksmith's and a newspaper, where he was allowed to write his own stories (not all of them true). He then worked on a steamboat, where he got the name 'Mark Twain' (from the call given by the boat's pilot when their boat is in safe waters). Eventually he turned to journalism again, travelled round the world, and began writing books which became very popular. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are his most famous novels. He poured the money he earned from writing into new business ventures and crazy inventions, such as a clamp to stop babies throwing off their bed covers, a new boardgame, and a hand grenade full of extinguishing liquid to throw on a fire. With his shock of white hair and trademark white suit Mark Twain became the most famous American writer in the world. He died in 1910.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

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