The Adventures of Mark Twain by Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Mark Twain by Huckleberry Finn.

Burleigh, Robert (Author) , Blitt, Barry (Illustrator)
Mar 2011. 48 p. Atheneum, hardcover, $17.99. (9780689830419).
The neat switcheroo in this picture-book biography has the story of Mark Twain’s life told by one of his
most endearing characters, Huck Finn. As one might expect, Huck isn’t the most articulate of narrators (“I ain’t no highfalutin’ talker”), and he would probably rather be doing just about anything else: “This ain’t
intendin’ to be some windy biografy. I don’t lean much to writin’, and I don’t fetch to books much neither,
’specially long ones.” Although Huck’s narration is almost overwhelmingly folksy, his undeniably cheery
tone is infectious. He succinctly traces Clemens’ life from a boyhood romping around the shores of the
Mississippi to his odd-jobbing endeavors as a steamboat captain, newspaper reporter, soldier, and
prospector until he finally finds his true calling, as a “for-real writer,” and becomes one of the most
famous men in the world. Blitt, a frequent New Yorker cartoonist, provides jaunty, cartoony pen-andwatercolor artwork, with exaggerated, tall-tale figures and period charm aplenty. Just the biography to reinforce, or even introduce, Twain’s stature as a nearly mythological figure in American letters.
— Ian Chipman
BOOKLIST, February 15, 2011