I have loved books for as long as I can remember. During my childhood, I read a variety of books but some of my favorites were Mark Twain’s classics, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. I loved the characters, and one year my parents even took our family across the state to visit Hannibal, Missouri, the setting for the novels.

Now that I’m all grown up, I am reminded of how much I enjoyed those books because of a new book based on one of the characters. Becky: The Life and Loves of Becky Thatcher by Lenore Hart is a must read for anyone who ever loved Tom Sawyer and his friends.

Told in the first person, the first thing the main character informs the reader is that Becky Thatcher was not the “pale, limp, blond-curled girl child” but as tough as Tom and Huck. Her journey takes her from the riverfront of Hannibal across the country to San Francisco and Nevada.

In the novel, Becky isn’t married to her childhood sweetheart, Tom Saywer, after all but to his cousin, Sid. Other familiar faces from the classic novels include Jim and a character new to Becky’s story is “Sammy Clemens”, based on Mark Twain himself. Twain’s pen name is more familiar but fans know the author was really Samuel Clemens.

At 371 pages, Becky: The Life and Loves of Becky Thatcher is just the right length to enjoy under a tree in the backyard or curled into the front porch swing. Published by St. Martin’s Press, the novel offers a bittersweet read. Just as we’ve grown up, so has Becky Thatcher.

Her joys and sorrows, triumphs and tragedies, resonate through this book which manages to bridge the years in an engrossing read that tells more of what happened then – and now.

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