The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Grover Gardner slips inside the humor and drama of this classic, casting a spell that vividly creates Twain's nineteenth-century setting for listeners. Whether dramatizing the exchange between two boys about to fight or that of clever Tom outwitting goodhearted Aunt Polly, Gardner highlights all the virtues of Twain's prose: that sly sense of humor, those deep insights into the human heart, whether glimpsed at a church funeral, a schoolyard, or a picnic gone wrong. As narrator, Gardner excels at pacing Twain's story to deliver maximum drama, while creating memorable characters through accent and tone. Gardner's ability to capture a specific sense of time and place while also conveying Twain's timeless insights about human nature make this production one the author himself could happily approve. J.C.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine


Jim Weiss is a wonderful storyteller, expansive and droll, with a gentle, ironic voice and a fine sense of timing. He also excels at character sketches, and listeners will be amused by his Tom, Aunt Polly, Becky, and Huck, among others. This production is a "storyteller's version" of the children's classic, though, so listeners should expect to move quickly from whitewashing the fence, to meeting Huck Finn and Becky Thatcher, to the graveyard scene. Weiss chooses only the highlights in this hour-long version. Though such brevity could distress loyal readers of the original, in the capable hands of Weiss, it may be a good way to tempt young listeners to read the book on their own. J.C.G. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine