A Brilliant Streak: The Making of Mark Twain [Hardcover]

Kathryn Lasky (Author), Barry Moser (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 1998 | Age Level: 6 and up | Grade Level: 1 and up

In this beautifully illustrated biography, Mark Twain’s adventures as a young boy come to life. Before Samuel Clemens became a famous author, he enjoyed one of the longest childhoods in history. From playing hooky in Hannibal, Missouri, to piloting steamboats on the Mississippi River, Mark Twain’s adventures as a youth influenced his entire life and figured prominently in his writing. Focusing on the first half of Clemens’s life, this book will be enjoyed by longtime Twain devotees--and by those who seek a colorful introduction to the ever-popular author and his works.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-7?Lasky tells of Mark Twain's youth with the same adroit humor that typified this literary icon. Relating accounts of her subject's childhood to characters and episodes from his stories, she creates a biography that will appeal to young readers and imparts her own enthusiasm for Twain's writing. In picture-book format, she covers the writer's life up to the night of his first public lecture, in San Francisco, from which day his fame was secured. The author uses enough direct quotes and attributions in her text to make the fictionalizing seem slight and authoritative. Unfortunately, when dealing with the issue of slavery and racism, she seems to need to justify Twain to such an extent that she summarizes with a broad absolvement that is far too simplistic, even for a young audience. Every spread is illustrated by one of Moser's artful watercolors, picturing characters and scenes from real life or from one of Twain's stories (sometimes this muddles the line between fact and fiction in a way that will confuse readers). While most of the illustrations are lovely, their subjects and composition may lack child appeal. For the most part, this biography is intelligently and appealingly written. Where it is thin, it can be supplemented with other works, and should find its own useful place in many collections.?Nina Lindsay, Vista School, Albany, CA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 4^-7. Mining Clemens' own literary works for quotes and anecdotes, Lasky introduces one of America's best-known and most celebrated storytellers. She focuses on the first 30 years of his life, drawing on episodes from his childhood in Missouri and his experiences as steamboat pilot, prospector, and reporter, taking great care to forge the disparate incidents into a readable whole. At the same time, she gives readers a glimpse of Clemens as humorist, adventurer, and, to a lesser extent, social commentator. Her attempt to explain Clemens' penchant for lying ("He might tell lies, but they were honest lies and had a certain unvarnished truth about them") may simply confuse readers, but her proficiency in relating the funny and the poignant occurrences in Clemens' life, often linking them directly to his writings, more than makes up for that. Her text is more energetic than Moser's illustrations, a few of which seem a good deal less polished than others. However, some of the pictures are quite striking--among them, the wonderful jacket portrait of Twain in his later years. Children will definitely want to find out more about Clemens, and Lasky's concise bibliography will be a good place for them to begin. Lasky's versatility is evident in this issue of Booklist; see below and also the review on p.1320. Stephanie Zvirin

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 6 and up
  
• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books; 1st edition (April 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0152521100
• ISBN-13: 978-0152521103
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 8.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,261,154 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Hi Readers! Thanks for coming by my author page. I've written all sorts of books - from fantasy about animals to books about science. One of my favorite animal fantasy series, Guardians of Ga'Hoole, is a major motion picture. I liked writing about Ga'Hoole so much that I decided to revisit that world in a new series, Wolves of the Beyond. Visit my website, www.kathrynlasky.com to see a slide show about the real wolves I researched for the series and for the latest update on the Guardians of Ga'Hoole movie. All my best, Kathryn

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliant Review, May 8, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: A Brilliant Streak: The Making of Mark Twain (Hardcover)

This book was a very good book. It tells most of the things you need to know about Mark Twain, and it tells them in an interesting way. The only problem with using this book to write a report about Mark Twain's life is that it doesn't include some things that you might need to know. For example, it doesn't say the school he went to (which was John Dawson school). It also doesn't say too much about his children or wife. But it does tell a lot of good details, even little ones, about his life. I think this is a good book if you want to learn about Mark Twain or write a report about him.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The story of how young Sam Clemens became Mark Twain, September 9, 2004

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: A Brilliant Streak: The Making of Mark Twain (Hardcover)

The cover illustration of "A Brilliant Streak: The Making of Mark Twain" shows the familiar visage of a white haired Twain, decked out in a white shirt, white tie and white jacket. However, young readers who check out this juvenile biography of the great writer by Kathryn Lasky, illustrated by Barry Moser, will discover that it stops telling his story well before Samuel Clemens becomes the famous figure on the front cover. In doing so Lasky makes good use of the what Twain wrote on the last page of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," where he pointed out that a history of a boy has to stop before it becomes the history of a man.

"A Brilliant Streak" begins with Clemens being born the night Halley's comet streaked across the sky in 1835 and ends with him dying the day after it returned seventy-five years later. But the climax of Lasky's story comes when "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" was printed in 1865 and Mark Twain became known as the Wild Humorist of the Pacific Slope. Getting to the point is, in Lasky's words, the story of "one of the longest childhoods in history." It was only when fame found the boy who had become Mark Twain that he had to grow up fast.

The boy who became the legendary Mark Twain was, like his famous creation Tom Sawyer, interested in exploring haunted caves and dreaming of finding a hidden cache of pirate's gold. Lasky shows how playing hooky in Hannibal, Missouri, piloting steamboats on the Mississippi River, and other adventures from Twain's youth not only influenced his life but figured prominently in the books he would come to write. Underscored in the narrative is the idea that the vivid imagination and knack for manipulating the truth that often got young Sam Clemens into trouble were the same factors that made his such a great storyteller.

There are other books that will tell the story of what happened when Mark Twain became the world famous writer of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," and "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court." If young readers want to do the proverbial read more about it there is a list of books about Mark Twain (and select books by the author as well) in the back of this book. Of course, the best advice I can give you is to read those books Twain wrote first before you go on to learn more about the man who wrote them. The greatest line in American literature is found in "Huckleberry Finn" and if there is one thing you should do with regards to the life and works of Mark Twain it is read that classic American novel and discover it for yourself.