BOOK PICKS.Byline: EDUCATION EXTRA The Register-Guard The Trouble Begins at Eight: A Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West By Sid Fleischman 2008 Ages 11 to adult Mark Twain, like Shakespeare, is a name kids hear tossed about in conversation before they ever read the stories he wrote that made him famous. Twain, the man who wore a white suit to "feel clean in a dirty world," is brought to life in this biography by Newbery award-winning author Sid Fleischman. Before creating the stories that would define him as a genius, Samuel Clemens - much better known as Mark Twain - worked at several professions. He was a printer's devil print·er's devil n. An apprentice in a printing establishment. [From the apprentice becoming black from the ink.] Noun 1. (a typeset apprentice) and a Mississippi river pilot A Mississippi River Pilot is responsible for guiding ships along the Mississippi River. On the Lower Mississippi River, the Associated Branch Pilots supplies River Pilots between the Gulf of Mexico and Pilottown, Louisiana. . He even briefly found himself a lumber lumber, term for timber that has been cut into boards for use as a building material. The major steps in producing lumber involve logging (the felling and preparation of timber for shipment to sawmills), sawing the logs into boards, grading the boards according to baron until accidentally burning down the trees on his mountain plot. This biography charts Twain's upbringing and early events in his life, but really focuses on the exciting, colorful years of his adulthood in Nevada and California. He spent periods prospecting gold and silver, but made his money and garnered fame as a newspaper reporter in San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden . The ever- present humor humor, according to ancient theory, any of four bodily fluids that determined man's health and temperament. Hippocrates postulated that an imbalance among the humors (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile) resulted in pain and disease, and that good health was in his writing propelled him into public speaking engagements, which were immediate successes and a precursor of stand-up comedy  This article or section may deal primarily with the U.S. and may not present a worldwide view. routines. Twain was a famous man in the West, and Fleischman
shows his desire to make a mark on the world at large.
It was when he left the West that he began writing books. Kids and adults alike will appreciate this quick biography. It reads like a compilation of adventure stories, full of Twain's own witticisms. Also included is a large excerpt ex·cerpt n. A passage or segment taken from a longer work, such as a literary or musical composition, a document, or a film. tr.v. ex·cerpt·ed, ex·cerpt·ing, ex·cerpts 1. of Twain's short story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." Fleischman provides a great introduction to one of America's most famous, challenged and important authors. - Carrie Schindele-Cupples, youth services librarian, Springfield Public Library |
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