Number Eleven: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) is undoubtedly one of the most classic children's books of all time and not without good reason.  The big question when reading a children's book is whether or not there is anything of value to an adult, but in this case that question has a very simple answer: YES!  This book is an exceptionally well written adventure which, although written using language a child can understand, contains ideals which can have application for everyone.  In this book, Twain manages to pull together an incredibly fun story which teaches children and adults alike the importance of maturing (both mentally and physically) and helping others to mature.
The obvious theme of this book was the idea of maturation.  At the start of this book, the characters in this book were as immature as possible.  Tom played jokes on everyone who cared about him and switched girls every other day (while claiming to love each of them).  By the end of the book, everything was different.  Tom had become a young man who took responsibility for his actions.  He cared enough for his girl at the end that he was quite willing to sit in a cave and die with her.  When he and Huck discovered where the secret treasure was, Tom used it to try to help Huck grow up in a good home and learn how to be a gentleman himself.  Truly, across this book, Tom grew up.
Now the question which is undoubtedly being asked right now is how exactly this theme is helpful to adults.  Well the truth is that everyone, young and old, has areas which they need to grow up in.  Also, the world today has taught people to NEVER grow up.  People now do not learn how to be adults and take responsibilities for their actions until they are extremely old.  This trend in society is extremely troubling and people could learn a valuable lesson from this book.
This book really was an extremely good book both for pleasure and for purpose.  I would recommend this book to just about anyone.  It is easy to read and has very few problems.  The only issue that I found in this book is a slight racist tendency indicative of the time in which it was written, but this tendency is not severe and can be relatively easily ignored.  I would recommend to parents of younger children reading this book that they remind their kids that attitudes like this are wrong, but that's my only caution.
Once again, hoping you are all out there reading these,
Jodath