The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Reading Activities (compiled by Jeremy Leatham)
|Pre Reading | During Reading | After Reading |

Before Reading

1. “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.” 23 February 2005. http://www.geocities.com/swaisman/sawyer.htm
This small webpage offers very useful information about the background and context for the novel and highlights some of the key moments Tom Sawyer history, such as the first film ever made about him. Students will be interested to know that many of the characters in Tom Sawyer were modeled after real people that Mark Twain knew as a boy in his hometown of Hannibal, MO (the inspiration for Tom’s hometown St. Petersburg).

2. “Directory of Mark Twain’s Maxims, Quotations, and Various Opinions.” Ed. Barbara Schmidt. 21 February 2005.
http://www.twainquotes.com/quotesatoz.html
This collection presents many of Twain’s hilarious quotes. These quotes will introduce students to Twain’s wit and humor and prepare them for Twain’s writing style.

3. “Illustrations by Norman Rockwell.” 23 February 2005. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/tomsawye/nostalgia/rockwellhp.html
This site offers two of Rockwell’s famous representations of Tom Sawyer (painting the fence and in school) with explanations. It also contains a link to a photo of the fence in Hannibal that Tom is supposed to have painted for students to compare the picture to. Ask students if they have ever seen the pictures and discuss with them the idea of legends. Has Tom Sawyer become a legend? How do these pictures affect the way we think about Tom Sawyer?

4. “Sources and Pretexts for Tom Sawyer.” 21 February 2005. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/tomsawye/tomsrcs.html
This site compares Tom Sawyer to other novels and stories with children protagonists, providing a useful context for Twain’s novel. It also examines Tom’s fascination of “the books” within the novel. The site would be very useful for introducing the novel or for a lesson on text to text connections.

5. “that sleepy village… those sleepy days…” 21 February 2005. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/tomsawye/nostalgia/nostalgiahp.html
This site explores Hannibal, MO (Twain’s childhood home and model for Tom Sawyer’s St. Petersburg), including a representation of old Hannibal and links to pictures of important attractions in Hannibal from the novel, such as Becky Thatcher’s home.

6. Twain, Mark. “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offences.” 21 February 2005. http://users.telerama.com/~joseph/cooper/cooper.html
This hilarious essay will introduce students to Twain’s humor, sarcasm, and criticism. Ask students to look for ways in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer that Twain uses humor, sarcasm or criticism. This essay would be especially useful in an American literature course where students had already been exposed to Cooper.

7. Twain, Mark. Interview with The New York World. 7 September 1902. 21 February 2005. http://www.twainquotes.com/Steamboats/Introduction.html
In this interview, Twain tells about his childhood desire to ride a steamboat and his first opportunity to do so. Reading this short excerpt from the interview before beginning Tom Sawyer will prepare students to better understand the context and setting of Twain’s novel.

8. Twain, Mark. “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” 21 February 2005. http://malakoff.com/jumpfrog.htm
Twain’s famous “Jumping Frog” will introduce students to Twain’s humor and local color. Ask students to look for ways in which Twain exaggerates the truth in both stories for comic effect, but still paints a realistic picture of the region he’s writing about.

9. Twain, Mark. Personal letter to W. D. Howells. 5 July 1875. 21 February 2005. http://www.boondocksnet.com/twaintexts/letters/letter750705.html
Upon the completion of Tom Sawyer, Twain wrote to Howells to ask him to read the manuscript and make suggestions. The letter is important because Twain shares many of his feelings about the book. For example, he states that the book is intended for adults, despite what the preface says and that he regrets not writing it in the first person (as he will later do with The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn). Read (or explain) the letter before the students read Tom Sawyer, and ask them to respond to the letter.

10. Wood, Jan and Norma Thiese. “Twain’s Hannibal.” The Learning Page. 26 September 2002. 22 February 2005. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/99/twain/intro.html
This site is intended specifically for teachers and offers great resources for approaching Twain’s Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. It includes background information, lesson plans, and enrichment activities.

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During Reading

1. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. 21 February 2005. http://www.mrcoward.com/slcusd/tomsaw.html
This website, created by a middle school English teacher, provides study questions for each chapter of Tom Sawyer, as well as vocabulary, quizzes, and even games. Exploring the site would be a fun activity for students, but the teacher could also use the site as a resource for planning lessons.

2. “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.” eNotes. 2005. 23 February 2005. http://www.enotes.com/tom-sawyer/
This online guide contains very useful information for teachers in preparing discussions and activities. For example, it contains information on themes, style, historical context, etc.

3. “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.” SparkNotes. 21 February 2005. http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/tomsawyer/
This site offers a complete, online study guide for Tom Sawyer, including context, character analysis, plot summary and analysis, etc. The site would be a valuable resource for teachers in planning discussions, activities, quizzes, and tests.

4. “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.” Literary Explorer. 21 February 2005. http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/lausd/offices/di/Burleson/Lessons/TomSawyer
This site offers numerous activities for students while reading Tom Sawyer, including character analysis and even sentence diagramming with the text. Teachers could use the site for ideas of student projects or presentations and even approach grammar through the text.

5. “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.” School Tales in the 19th Century. 21 February 2005.
http://www.schooltales.com/tomsawyer/
This site explores the representation of school in Tom Sawyer, provides notes on selected passages, and divides the book into themes. Approaching the novel through Tom’s experience in school might allow more students to connect with the novel and engage more students in the reading.

6. “Illustrating Tom Sawyer.” 23 February 2005. http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/tomsawye/tomillhp.html
This site includes selected illustrations from the original text as well as useful information about the pictures. Students will enjoy viewing these original representations and comparing them with their mental illustrations.

7. Laws, Joel. “Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer & Becky Thatcher: Secrets of McDougal Cave.” Ozark Caving. 21 February 2005.
http://ozarkcaving.com
Laws presents a history on the actual cave that inspired Tom’s underground adventure, now called “Mark Twain Cave.” He says, “The story of Tom Sawyer & Becky Thatcher's adventure underground has probably been responsible for more candles and string being taken into the dark than can ever be counted.” Students will gain an appreciation for the inspiration behind Twain’s writing.

8. Ruger, A. “Bird's Eye View of the City of Hannibal, Marion Co., Missouri 1869.” American Memory. 21 February 2005.
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/gmd:@field(NUMBER+@band(g4164h+pm004230))
Ruger’s 1869 detailed drawing of Hannibal, MO probably comes as close to Twain’s St. Petersburg as anything. Have students compare their mental image of Tom’s childhood home to the original inspiration of Twain’s work. Ask them to identify key places in the town that appear in the novel.

9. Study Guide for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The Glencoe Literature Library. 21 February 2005.
http://www.glencoe.com/sec/literature/litlibrary/pdf/tom_sawyer.pdf
This complete, online study guide is an excellent resource for teachers. It provides information about Mark Twain, ideas for introducing the novel, and numerous ideas for improving the students’ reading experience. In reality the source should be used for pre-reading, during reading and post-reading stages.

10. Thomson, Dave. “Tom Sawyer’s Cemetery.” www.twainquotes.com. Ed. Barbara Schmidt. 21 February 2005.
http://www.twainquotes.com/TSCemetery.html
Thomson describes the Hannibal cemetery that served as Twain’s model for the graveyard scene in Tom Sawyer. The site includes maps and pictures that will help students visualize the place after they have read about it.

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After Reading

1. “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: Criticism and Reviews.” Mark Twain. Ed. Jim Zwick. 21 February 2005.
http://www.boondocksnet.com/twainwww/ts_criticism.html
This site offers reviews and criticism from newspapers and magazines after the publication of Tom Sawyer. The site could be useful for teachers to understand how the novel was received in its time, or the teacher could ask students to respond to the reviews.

2. Beard, Carla. “Tom, Huck, and Susy: Three Views of Childhood.” July 2004. 21 February 2005.
http://www.webenglishteacher.com/tomhuck.pdf
This lesson plan teaches students how to identify multiple tones by taking three different samples of Twain’s writing (all of which deal with children) and asking students to contrast them. The lesson would be greatly improved after the students had already read Tom Sawyer.

3. “Disney’s Tom Sawyer Island.” Acme Web Sites Inc. 29 January 2005. 24 February 2005. http://home.earthlink.net/~cstrodder/
This site presents a virtual tour of Tom Sawyer Island in Disneyland. Have students explore the site (which contains maps, pictures and explanations) and respond to what they discover. Do they agree with Disney’s representation? Does it look exciting? Is it how Tom would have wanted it?
(See also: “The Tom Sawyer’s Island Appreciation Page.” http://nilesonline.com/TSI/ and “Tom’s America According to Disney.” http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/tomsawye/nostalgia/disneyhp.html http://home.earthlink.net/~cstrodder/).

4. Hewitt, Peter, dir. Tom and Huck. Disney Video, 1995.
This Disney film version of Tom Sawyer is probably the most famous. After reading the book, show segments to the class and ask them to identify similarities and differences and respond to the differences. Which did they like better? Why?

5. Howells, William Dean (unsigned). “Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.” Atlantic Monthly. 37.223 (1876): 621-22. Cornell University Library. 21 February 2005. http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/sgml/moa-idx?notisid=ABK2934-0037&byte=266081561
This link contains the full text of W. D. Howells’ review of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in The Atlantic Monthly. The review is significant not only because of Howells’ place in American literature, but also because he and Twain were good friends, and he helped Twain with his original manuscript of Tom Sawyer. After finishing the book and reading the review, ask students to write their own book review.

6. “Mark Twain.” The Literature Network. 21 February 2005.
http://www.online-literature.com/twain/
This site contains information on Mark Twain and his works, including reviews from students in secondary schools on Tom Sawyer. Teachers can use the site as a resource for information about Twain or ask the students to read some of the reviews and respond to them depending on whether they agree or disagree.

7. “Mark Twain…Illustrations from Tom Sawyer.” 2004. 23 February 2005. http://www.kids.state.ct.us/kidsmemory/twain.htm
Students can access a fun version of the game “Memory” at this webpage that includes illustrations from the original text of Tom Sawyer. Not only will students enjoy the game, they will be able to view the original illustrations.

8. Times (London). 28 August 1876. 21 February 2005. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/tomsawye/londonti.html
This unsigned review in the London Times offers a European perspective on Tom Sawyer. After students read the review, ask them to identify what seems to be distinctly “American” about the novel.

9. Twain, Mark. Personal letter to Asa Don Dickinson. 21 November 1905. 22 February 2005. http://www.boondocksnet.com/twaintexts/letters/letter051121.html
In this letter to a librarian from the Brooklyn Public Library, Twain responds to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn being banned from the children’s section of the library. Sarcastically, Twain compares his work to the Bible, declaring that they certainly are both unfit for children (as Huck Finn, for example, is certainly nearly as bad as David or Solomon). Compare the tone and content of the letter to Twain’s tone and content of the novel.

10. Zwick, Jim. “Banned Books and American Culture.” Mark Twain. Ed. Jim Zwick. 22 February 2005. http://www.boondocksnet.com/twainwww/essays/banned_books9709.html
Although much of this article focuses on the current bans against The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, it also discusses the bans placed on Tom Sawyer during Twain’s lifetime on the grounds that Tom and Huck incited youth to rebellion. Ask students to respond to the ban on Tom Sawyer and agree or disagree.