The Actual & Truthful Adventures of Becky Thatcher by Jessica Lawson

There is plenty of small-town adventure involving escaped thieves, graveyard escapades, and a possible witch. 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. Lawson delivers an entertaining tale, but also writes movingly about grief. 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. That is, if that tattletale Tom Sawyer will quit following her around. 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. So Becky concocts a plan to clear the Widow’s name. 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.īut the theft doesn’t go as planned, and Widow Douglas ends up being unfairly accused of grave robbing as a result. 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. 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.

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).

The Actual & Truthful Adventures of Becky Thatcher by Jessica Lawson