Would you read Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn?

[Sparrows-Song]

I am wanting to take a week to read one of these with my boys, UG and D levels. Which of these would you recommend, and why?

 

Thanks!

[JWSJ]

Sawyer is a boy's book and came first.

 

Finn is a more serious book that covers many issues.

 

When Finn was published everyone thought it was going to be another boy's book. It shows Finn growing up to be a man, but he makes some very serious decisions to get there. It's a book to be discussed.

[Carol in Cal.]

Tom Sawyer comes first chronologically, so it's easiest if you read it first. It is well written and very funny. It also has clear literary elements to talk about (see Esquith for a cool sample book report). But, the main character is quite disobediant, although he is conflicted about it, and the author's tone is pretty sarcastic throughout the book. I saved it until DD was 11 because I don't really want to encourage her already extraordinary talent for sarcasm (and because there are so many other good books to read! Trust me, she is far from deprived in that category.)

 

Huck Finn is not so much a kids' book. It's more of a coming of age book, where the coming of age is growing up into a moral being rather than growing up into a s*xual one. It includes a lot, lot of repetition of the N word, which I find very very difficult to stomach. We have not read it yet. I doubt that I can read that one aloud. It is a book that will give a logic stage person a lot to think about and talk about, and still be entertaining for someone younger.

[Testimony]

Tom Sawyer hands down.

Karen

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

[choirfarm]

I would probably save Huck Finn for when they are dialectic and rhetoric. I read it aloud to my 11th graders, leaving out the N word. The posters are right there is A LOT to discuss in Huck Finn and I would not leave that book to be read by themselves. It has been a long time, but one thing I remember is the climax of the book. Huck Finn decided that he will not turn Jim in and says, "All right then, I'll go to he--." The church teaching of his time period told him that if he did not turn in a slave, then he would burn in he--. Many people did not even consider a black person to be a human being. We talked A LOT in class about how people can twist things in the Bible. One of his aunts wants Huck to act a certain way as well and it is tied to church (It has been too long and I cannot remember details!) Huck's father is also an alcoholic and abusive. Lots of serious issues that need to be discussed.

Christine

[Rhondabee]

:001_smile:

[Sparrows-Song]

Thank you for your answers! Looks like we will go with Tom Sawyer! :)

[Txmom]

nnm

[AnneD]

seems more accessible, though I'd follow with Huck Finn.

[Jenny in Atl]

:iagree:

 

Then after TS and HF... Treasure Island :001_smile:

[Dayle in Guatemala]

I would do Tom Sawyer first as well. I think it's a little easier and a fun introduction to Mark Twain. Huck Finn has a dialect that is a little harder to understand, and there's a lot more of it than in Tom Sawyer.