- a mistreated and malnourished boy is given magic seeds and an ability to communicate with animals
- story is disjointed, somewhat disturbing, and empty feeling
- convo: whipping, someone dies and the boy has to bury him, mentions pagan gods, exalts Charles Darwin multiple times
- beautiful illustrations
Type: short, illustrated chapter book
Ages: none
Authors: Philip Stead, Mark Twain
Illustrator: Erin Stead
This book irked me from beginning to end, and I hope the wonderful friend who gifted this to my daughter never reads this review…
Turns out, contrary to how it’s marketed, Mark Twain didn’t have much of a hand in the writing. Philip Stead found a small amount of fragmented notes in the Twain Archives and created most of the story. I will grant the cleverness of portraying the two authors chatting on an island in the middle of Lake Michigan. The story is broken up by shifting over to this scene on occasion, inserting comments about the story as “Twain” develops it, but that also might be interruptive to some reader types.
Though Stead’s writing style did not remind me of Twain’s in the least, he did at least manage to portray the cold, dark, empty worldview Twain held his entire life.
If any of you strongly request for more details, I’ll commit to re-reading and adding more to this review. For now, though, I’m going to publish and move on.