The Actual & Truthful Adventures of Becky Thatcher

by Jessica Lawson, Iacopo Bruno (Illustrator)

Overview

Becky Thatcher has her side of the story to tell—and it’s a whopper—in this creative spin on Mark Twain’s beloved The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, complete with illustrations, that Publishers Weekly calls “a rewarding read on many levels” (starred review).

Tom Sawyer’s and Huckleberry Finn’s adventures are legendary, but what about the story you haven’t heard? In 1860, eleven-year-old Becky Thatcher is the new girl in town, determined to have adventures like she promised her brother Jon before he died. With her Mama frozen in grief and her Daddy busy as town judge, Becky spends much of her time on her own, getting into mischief. Before long, she joins the boys at school in a bet to steal from the Widow Douglas, and Becky convinces her new best friend, Amy Lawrence, to join her.

But the theft doesn’t go as planned, and Widow Douglas ends up being unfairly accused of grave robbing as a result. So Becky concocts a plan to clear the Widow’s name. If she pulls it off, she might just get her Mama to notice her again, as well as fulfill her promise to Jon in a most unexpected way. That is, if that tattletale Tom Sawyer will quit following her around.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481401555
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	07/01/2014
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
Lexile:	820L (what's this?)
File size:	13 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Jessica Lawson is the author of The Actual & Truthful Adventures of Becky Thatcher, a book that Publishers Weekly called “a delightfully clever debut” in a starred review, and Nooks & Crannies, a Junior Library Guild Selection and recipient of three starred reviews. She is also the author of Waiting for Augusta, Under the Bottle Bridge, and How to Save a Queendom. You can visit her at JessicaLawsonBooks.com.

Iacopo Bruno is an illustrator and graphic designer living in Milan, Italy.

Read an Excerpt

The Actual & Truthful Adventures of Becky Thatcher

Editorial Reviews

06/01/2014
Gr 4–6—As a more politically correct retelling of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Lawson's novel turns several ideas in Mark Twain's original story on their heads. Tom the tattletale lurks in the backdrop of 1860 St. Petersburg, MO, but the focus is on the adventures that Becky plans with her friend Amy Lawrence. While Becky has found comfort in getting into the mischief that her recently deceased brother will miss, her mother neglects Becky completely by shutting herself away. Meanwhile, a man named Sam Clemens is staying with Becky's friend Sid Sawyer. All of the pieces are in place, employing the traditional characters and setting. Stylized language and unfamiliar vocabulary may prove a barrier to some readers, and a twist ending, though clever, fails to live up to its potential. Nevertheless, readers not familiar with Twain's work will find an enjoyable adventure story with glimmers of mystery. Fans of historical fiction will enjoy the charming heroine and fitting affirmations of family, friendship, and remembrance.—Erin Reilly-Sanders, Ohio State University, Columbus

School Library Journal

★ 05/05/2014
Lawson makes a delightfully clever debut with what at first seems to be a feminist spin on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: What if Becky Thatcher were the troublemaker and adventurer, and Tom a goody-goody tattletale? But the presence of a character named Sam Clemens, “the story man,” as Becky dubs him, taking constant notes, adds a deeper metafictional layer to the story. Lawson delivers an entertaining tale, but also writes movingly about grief. Becky is struggling with the death of her older brother, Jon, a year earlier, and with the simultaneous loss of her mother, now a silent mourning shadow, incapable of showing love for Becky. There is plenty of small-town adventure involving escaped thieves, graveyard escapades, and a possible witch. Trained by Jon, brave Becky is an authentic tomboy who prides herself on her spitting and ear-flicking, as well as an open-hearted and loyal friend, and her final conversation with Clemens in the closing pages makes Lawson’s real premise deliciously clear. A rewarding read on many levels. Ages 8–12. Agent: Tina Wexler, ICM. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"The deliciously impetuous, devilishly clever, and uncommonly brave Becky Thatcher is now one of my all-time favorite herounes, and I'm desperate to follow her on more adventures. Captivating, exciting, and great barrels-full of fun, this is a book to adore."

Anne Ursu

"Young readers will race through this adventure, while teachers and adults will delight in its gold mine of creative parallels."

BookPage

2014-03-31
Here's a different Becky Thatcher: She spews spitballs, prefers overalls to dresses, takes dares from boys and tracks down criminals. In this debut novel, Becky's voice, full of Southern expressions and superstitions, describes events that occur in her new hometown of St. Petersburg, Mo., during the time that steamboat captain and aspiring writer Sam Clemens is boarding with Tom Sawyer and Aunt Polly. As Becky digs up a beetle to avenge a cruel insult to her best friend, she muses: "I didn't know why they were called gull beetles, but I reckoned it had something to do with the high-pitched shriek Ruth Bumpner would let out when she found one buried in her egg salad sometime in the next week or so." Even as Becky's adventures reveal bits of plot and characters that will later be found in Mark Twain's writing, readers also enter Becky's personal world, which includes the different ways she and her parents are grieving her beloved brother's death. The novel's predominantly light tone and narrative perspective make the flatness of the villains forgivable—there's a sadistic schoolteacher, a snobbish family and two stupid smugglers—while Becky and her many allies are all realistically well-rounded. Beneath the lively story is a subtext that both primes readers for reading Mark Twain and responds to the question of where writers find inspiration. Delightful. (Historical fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews