The Actual & Truthful Adventures of Becky Thatcher
By Kate Pavao,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Imaginative retelling puts feisty girl at center of classic.
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What's the Story?
In this clever retelling of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, feisty Becky Thatcher has just moved to St. Petersburg, Mo., after her older brother dies of pneumonia. There, she makes quick friends with Amy Lawrence and Sid Sawyer but loathes sycophantic Tom, who tells on her when she sneaks out at night to go check on Sam Clemens' grounded riverboat. With Amy, she enters into a bet to steal from the Widow Douglas, a suspected witch. But on their way to steal some graveyard dirt to protect themselves, they run into big trouble: The Pritchard brothers are wanted in the area for robbery and possible murder, and that night Billy Pritchard catches Becky at the graveyard, where he's stealing from a grave, and he tells her, " ... if I hear word that you told on me ... I'll find you and your family and I'll see to it that none of you have mouths to talk with." But when suspicion for the grave robbing falls on the Widow Douglas, Becky goes to great lengths to prove the kind woman's innocence while still saving her own hide. And to do so, she may have to thank none other than Tom Sawyer.
Is It Any Good?
Even readers who haven't yet read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer will appreciate the strong-willed star at the center of THE ACTUAL & TRUTHFUL ADVENTURES OF BECKY THATCHER. She's certainly a brave girl (for example, short on change to enter in a betting pool, she offers a boy the chance to pick her scab), and she's full of all kinds of superstitions that she knows are fake but can trick herself into believing (after eating a cookie at the Widow's house for example, she falls on the floor, thinking she's been poisoned by a witch. Then she realizes the pain in her mouth is because the cookie was piping hot).
She certainly gets herself -- and some other folks -- into plenty of trouble, but in the end she's able to find a way to grow up while keeping parts of her childhood, including her adventurous spirit.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about why the author might have decided to re-create such a classic tale. Can you think of a story you'd like to write from another character's perspective?
Becky says, "In my experience, adults seldom took to hearing a child's truth, least not without a heap of doubt or a switch involved afterward." Do you agree with her perspective?
What do you think of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain's real name) being a character in this book? Did you notice how author Jessica Lawson weaves in plot points that might have served as inspiration for several other Twain stories?
Book Details
- Author: Jessica Lawson
- Genre: Adventure
- Topics: Adventures, Brothers and Sisters, Friendship, Great Girl Role Models
- Book type: Fiction
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster
- Publication date: July 1, 2014
- Publisher's recommended age(s): 8 - 12
- Number of pages: 224
- Available on: Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
- Last updated: July 12, 2017
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