What would people say?”

Tom said he would ask the Widow Douglas to go easy on Huck. So Huck agreed to go back.

“Midnight’s the best time for the swearing in,” said Tom. “We’ll get the gang together at the haunted house. We have to swear on a coffin. And sign in blood!”

Tom shivered with delight. He hoped there would never be an end to all their exciting adventures!

Mark Twain was born in Missouri in 1835. His real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. But he wrote under the pen name “Mark Twain.”

Throughout his youth Twain toured the country. He worked for one print shop and newspaper after another. His first book was published when he was thirty-four years old.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) was Twain’s second book. It was based on his childhood memories of life on the Mississippi River. The sequel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, was published in 1884.

Twain is best known for his writings about American people and places. He wrote more than a dozen novels, short stories, and essays. Mark Twain died in 1910 when he was seventy-four years old.

Monica Kulling was born in British Columbia, Canada. Ms. Kulling is the author of the Stepping Stones adaptations Little Women, Les Misérables, and Great Expectations. Her credits also include picture books, Step Into Reading books, poems published in Cricket magazine, and several poetry anthologies. She lives in Toronto, Canada, with her partner and their two dogs, Sophie and Alice.

If you enjoyed reading about Tom’s
adventures, you won’t want to miss …

by Robert Louis Stevenson
adapted by Lisa Norby

I scrambled onto the deck. Israel Hands lay nearby, alive but wounded.

“I am taking over the ship,” I told him.

Mr. Hands looked up at me. “Very well, Captain Hawkins,” he said. “I’ll obey you. I have no choice.”

For a few minutes I was so busy that I almost forgot that Mr. Hands was just pretending to be badly hurt. But all of a sudden something made me turn around. He had sneaked up behind me! He pulled out the knife. Then he charged.

Want even more action and adventure?
Then be sure to check out …

BY JULES VERNE
ADAPTED BY JUDITH CONAWAY

A volcano burned in the distance. Lava poured from the volcano. The red-hot rocks lit up an entire city.

For it was a city I saw there. I could see towers, palaces, houses, stores.