The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Susy) / Bluebonnet

Plot Summary:

            Mark Twain’s daughter, Susy, is writing his biography. She thinks that she knows him much better than other people and is therefore an expert. She writes about his habits and idiosyncrasies in a very honest manner. He discovers that she is writing this book and endevors to help her out with it, coming in and making announcements about himself so that she has new material. She also tells about his struggles with fame and business. We find that Susy sees her father as a very serious man, unlike the rest of the world. This book does not follow traditional plot lines because it is a very short biography. The resolution is all about her finishing the book.  

Personal Reaction:

            This is a great book, I found out a lot about Mark Twain that I didn’t know and I actually had to do an internet search about Grant’s Memiors because I have heard about how wonderful they are. It occoured to me that maybe Mark Twain really wrote them, due to the fact that he published them (as mentioned in this book). Turns out, most people think that Grant wrote them himself. The illustrations are fun, I really like the small journal pages inside the book, it really seperates Susy’s biography from that of the author and interactive is always better for those tactile learners. The pictures themselves are very bold, and, like Susy’s book, they give an honest account rather than the most flattering one. I like the use of the swirling lines for such things as smoke and hair, they are very script-like.

Kerley, B., & Fotheringham, E. (2010). The extraordinary Mark Twain (according to Susy). New York: Scholastic Press.