Customer Reviews

The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According To Susy)

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Everybody talked about her Papa and thought they knew everything there was to know about him, but they really didn't. Yes, he was a "world-famous author, quoted here, there, and everywhere," but no one knew Mark Twain like Susy did. It just plain old "annoyed" her and she was going to set the record straight and would just have to write a biography of her Papa. After all, she knew more about him than anyone. And so, thirteen-year-old Susy began to secretly write about him. She described his handsome features saying, "All his features are perfect exept that he hasn't extrodinary teeth." Susy would have to capture his personality on the page and did so perfectly (even though her spelling left a bit to be desired).

He had some very good qualities and some "not-so-fine qualities" like his absentmindedness and his temper. Why even once Mama found him in a library reading one of his own books. Heck, he loved it, but didn't realize it was one of his own. Of course among the "bad" things Susy claimed was that "He smokes a great deal almost incessantly . . . Papa uses very strong language." Susy wrote all about her Papa, the person she knew better than anyone else. At night her words would be tucked under her pillow, but Papa and Mama discovered them. She really did know a lot about him because he really was a real man, a special one and HER Papa!

This is a fascinating, charming, "new" look at Mark Twain from the eyes of his young daughter, Susy. The pages of her biography about Susy's Papa are inset in between the pages so the reader can open up and read them, misspellings and all. I loved the little "you've got it all wrong" insinuation this young girl leaves with the world. She captures a side of this author that many would believe, but not know about it. Twain claimed that "This is a frank biographer and an honest one; she uses no sandpaper on me." In the back of the book can be found interesting vignettes about this father/daughter team, hints on how to write a biography, a selected time line, and a lovely photographic portrait of the family. This is a fresh and charming look at a beloved author that you just might want to take a look at yourself!

Wow!

This is a fun and interesting biography, with inset pages from Twain's daughter's journal. The little pages are just bound into the book... it is remarkable.

Non-standard spelling and a LOT of humor -- this is a fun one to read out loud with your family, because there is so much humor inside.

Hilarious illustrations will knock your socks off.

This is truly a great book. It would make a fine gift (or donation for a teacher's classroom library.)

Written from the point of view of Mark Twain's daughter, Susie, this book offers a fresh, and fun, perspective on the man. Along with the book, entries from Susie's diary are interspersed within the pages.

This excerpt had me laugh out loud when discussing the downside of fame that existed even in those days:

"He was a famous author, living in the most impressive house in Hartford, Connecticut. Friends, neighbors, and total strangers were eager to spend time with him. Papa tried to let George, the butler, know when he wasn't interested in visitors. But sometimes Papa had to suffer when, as he put it, some 'mentally dead people brought their corpses with them for long visit.' And then there were the stacks of 'irksome' letters to answer. Far too much of Papa's time was used up by being famous."

There's also Susie's observations when her Father was writing Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Mamma's job to "clean up any questionable passages".

I enjoyed it and it would be a fun resource for any child/student to read if they were learning about Mark Twain or were reading one of his many books.

THE EXTRAORDINARY MARK TWAIN is a wonderful, intimate portrayal of the life of one of the most important American writers. It is also an insightful look into the role of the biographer, and the impact that a child or teenager can make.

Author Barbara Kerley firmly takes the viewpoint of Twain's daughter Susy in creating her biography of the famous writer. The book in interspersed with insights taken directly from Susy's journal - misspellings and all. Illustrator Edwin Fotheringham rounds out the book by creating visuals that are simultaneously larger-than-life, as is the author, and personal, as is befitting a biography that comes from family.

Readers need to have a fair amount of context - both in understanding who Mark Twain was and in understanding the role of a biographer - to fully appreciate the book. Older kids may be put off by the thought of reading what is so obviously a picture book, but will appreciate the quick, unexpected look at Twain. Younger kids will be drawn to the look of the book but may struggle to appreciate the content.

Award-winning writer Barbara Kerley, author of the acclaimed picture books Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins and What To Do About Alice, among others, has provided a unique perspective on Mark Twain for young readers by sharing the story of how Twain's 13 year old daughter Susy researched and wrote a biography of her famous father.

She decided to write his biography because people who thought they knew the world-famous writer were "just plain wrong about her papa." Yes, he was a humorist, but Susy knew he was much more than that, and she "was determined to set the record straight." She observed his "fine qualities...and not so fine qualities. Into the biography--and under the pillow--it all went."

Although Susy began her project in secret, her mother found it and shared it with her husband. He said it was the finest compliment he had ever received.

Kerley explores how Susy included the key elements of any biography, the subject's youth, private and public life, from how he liked to relax on family vacations to a relative's nearby farm, to how he was sometimes serious and sometimes silly. Twain enjoyed Susy's 130 page biography so much that he included passages from it in his own autobiography.

Inserted in this oversized volume are mini-journals, stapled to the book spine, which include excerpts from Susy's actual text in script, misspellings and all.

In an author's note, Kerley provides additional biographical information on Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens, as well as on daughter Susy, who sadly died at the age of twenty-four. Kerley also provides instructions on "writing an extraordinary biography," which can also be downloaded at [...]. This book would be a terrific choice to read aloud to an elementary or even middle-school class, and then have them write a biography of someone they know or are interested in.

The stylized, cartoon-like illustrations by Edwin Fotheringham, who also collaborated with Kerley on What To Do About Alice, can almost tell the story without the text. On the cover, we see Susy wielding an enormous pen, scribbles from which appear in all the illustrations, tying the book together with a common design theme. One of my favorite illustrations shows the Twain household's home open like a Victorian dollhouse, and we can see Twain and his family in each room, complete with him flinging oversized shirts with enormous buttons out the windows. On illustrator Edwin Fotheringham's website, you can see many of the two-page spreads from this stunning book.

This book is particularly timely, since 2010 is the 100th anniversary of Twain's death. Before he died, the author stipulated that his complete autobiography was not to be released until he had been dead for a century. In November, the University of California Berkeley, which has had the manuscript in a vault, will be releasing the first volume of what will be a trilogy of his memoirs (excerpts have been published before, but not the entire manuscript).

An outstanding book - beautifully illustrated, cleverly laid out, with precious stories from Twain's own daughter. My husband and I enjoyed it, our 6-year old granddaughter wanted to read it again, and my daughter who teaches 5th grade plans to buy it for her class. I will buy more copies for my other grandchildren and recommend it to friends as a very special book.

Collections strong in graphic novel style illustrations will welcome Barbara Kerley's THE EXTRAORDINARY MARK TWAIN ACCORDING TO SUSY, illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham. It tells of a teen who writes her own biography of Mark Twain, determined to set the record straight about his life, and offers a fine selection of diary entries, mini-book inserts, and fine drawings.

Sorry to say we were disappointed with this book. Our 10-yr old is very interested in Mark Twain and was in need of a biography for a school report. This book is great for a younger child, but not a great research resource. We opted for "Who Was Mark Twain?" book which looks right up our daughters alley.