If Mark Twain had never written another book but TOM SAWYER he probably would have retained the same claim to immortality, for never has a story more perfectly captured the pranks, pains and sheer joy of boyhood.

Tom Sawyer grew up in a little town called Hannibal, Missouri, which nestled on the banks of the Mississippi River. He lived with his Aunt Polly who had a waspish tongue and a heart of gold, had his first crush on pretty Becky Thatcher and got into elaborate mischief with his great companion, Huckleberry Finn. Actually, however, his story could just as well have hapened in any town or city where a spirited boy looks around for adventure and generally lands in trouble. 

For more than fifty years, generations of boys and girls and their mothers and fathers have chuckled over Tom's misadventures. When you read how Tom managed to escape from the job he hated most—whitewashing the fence—or how he ran away from home and turned up again at his own funeral, you'll understand again why this is one of the great American books of all time. 

From the dust jacket of the Illustrated Junior Library edition