Readers Digest Best Loved Books for Young Readers

TOM SAWYER S BEST friend was Huckleberry Finn, the envy of all his con-temporaries because he smoked a pipe and never had to wash or go toschool. But there were too many well-intentioned grown-ups wanting to"sivilize" Huck, so he had no choice but to leave town, quietly. This bookis his own ever-memorable account of what followed. Down the Mississippi he floated on a log raft. And his experiences,recounted in his inimitably racy language, were legion: some hair-raising,some hilarious, some bittersweet and haunting. On the whole he was happy."You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft," he decided. Huck came to value freedom for others as well when he joined forceswith Jim, a brave and generous runaway slave. Years ahead of his time(which was the early nineteenth century), Huck learns that the color of aman s skin has nothing to do with his worth as an individual or his rightto freedom.