River Boy The Story of Mark Twain

•  Title: River Boy The Story of Mark Twain
  
•  Author: William Anderson
  
•  Illustrator: Dan Andresen
  
• Age Range: 4 - 8 years
• Grade Level: 2 - 5
• Lexile Measure: 880L
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; 1st edition (February 18, 2003)
• Language: English (Amazon.com)

Synopsis: This biography on Mark Twain goes through and shows how his childhood had such an important impact on his future writings. Sam Clemens was born in Missouri and raised alongside the Mississippi River. He had a decent childhood until his father died and he had to start working to help support the family at age twelve. Clemens worked at a newspaper, on a steam boat, and then as an author and lecturer. Clemens married, had children, and grew into an old age with a fantastic home he built for his family.

My Review: This book provided lots of fascinating information about Mark Twain's life without once being boring! One fascinating piece of information found is that Sam Clemens was born on and died during the arrival of Haley's Comet. I especially loved all of the scenes mentioned from his childhood that come straight out of some of his more famous novels. I never knew that Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn were based so much on his real life. The full page illustrations were nice, but the colors weren't vivid enough for me. Perhaps the color scheme was supposed to mimic the murky waters of the Mississippi? Not sure, but I definitely think that the illustrations need some work bringing more life into the story. Another awesome thing I learned was that Clemens actually was a steamboat pilot at one point in his career. The only "tool" provided in this book is a timeline at the back of "The Life of Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain." The lack of bibliography is a little disturbing, and I think an author's note would have been helpful as well so the audience could get to know more about why the author chose to write about Mark Twain. Overall, I'd  say that it was fun and interesting, but lacked crucial tools to enhance the story.