List $29.95

Written by Mark Twain - Audio book performed by Grover Gardner - Unabridged Fiction - 1 LIBRARY EDITION MP3 COMPACT DISC - 6.8 hours

NOTE: Blackstone Audio LIBRARY EDITIONS come in durable, vinyl packaging with cover art created by Blackstone's award-winning art department. Inside the CD and MP3 CD packages, the CD sleeves are cloth. An index of contents and tracking information are included inside the MP3-CD format.

“Grover Gardner slips inside the humor and drama of this classic, casting a spell that vividly creates Twain's nineteenth-century setting for listeners. Whether dramatizing the exchange between two boys about to fight or that of clever Tom outwitting goodhearted Aunt Polly, Gardner highlights all the virtues of Twain's prose: that sly sense of humor, those deep insights into the human heart, whether glimpsed at a church funeral, a schoolyard, or a picnic gone wrong. As narrator, Gardner excels at pacing Twain's story to deliver maximum drama, while creating memorable characters through accent and tone. Gardner's ability to capture a specific sense of time and place while also conveying Twain's timeless insights about human nature make this production one the author himself could happily approve.” —AudioFile

"Gardner's reading of Twain's classic convinces us why certain titles remain in the pantheon of must-reads (and must-listens). Gardner's resonant tones roll over the rich, extensive vocabulary, almost as if Twain himself were telling the story. He reads the varying country dialects in a natural manner, conveying Tom's spunkiness and quick wit. He uses higher pitches for the female characters, imparting an innocent breathiness into Becky Thatcher's dialogue and a solid, forthrightness into Aunt Polly's. Although the nineteenth-century language and syntax may seem a bit arcane, the delightful audio enables kids to enjoy this compelling tale, which might seem daunting in book form." —Booklist

“Twain intended his novel not just as a book for the young, but as a piece of nostalgia for the young at heart….Gardner's performance is designed to realize Twain's intent….He makes listeners pay attention to the words as well as the action. It's a relatively quiet reading—homey—as if told in retrospect by one's grandfather….His forte is interpretation.” —KLIATT

Publisher, Blackstone Audiobooks (July 2008)

Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award

Just what did boys do in a small town during the mid-1800s, a time when there were no televisions, no arcades, and no videos? They whitewashed fences, floated down rivers, traded marbles, formed secret societies, smoked pipes, and, on occasion, managed to attend their own funerals. Yes, they may have been a bit mischievous, but as Aunt Polly said of Tom when she believed him to be dead, “He was the best-hearted boy that ever was.” Aunt Polly’s sentiments reveal one of Mark Twain’s cardinal philosophies: In this deceitful and infirm world, innocence can be found only in the heart of a boy.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a humorous and nostalgic book depicting the carefree days of boyhood in a small Midwestern town. The characters are based on Twain’s schoolmates and the town, Hannibal, Missouri, is where Twain grew up.

About the Author: MARK TWAIN, pseudonym of Samuel L. Clemens (1835–1910), was born in Florida, Missouri. A printer and later a Mississippi riverboat pilot, he adopted his pen name from riverboat lingo meaning water two fathoms deep. His masterpieces, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), are not only classics of humorous writing but also a graphic picture of nineteenth-century America.