Wrestling with Tom Sawyer

Gr 5–8—In this fast-paced addition to the series, precocious, quirky 12-year-old twins Linus and Ophelia Easterday and their friend Walter embark on an adventure with the enchanted circle, a phenomenon that enables characters from well-known literary works to cross over into the Real World each year at 11:11 p.m. on September 11. The fictitious character can remain here, intermingling with actual people for only 60 hours and then must return to the Book World. Now the twins' uncle is having his monthly literary party with Mark Twain as the theme. Ophelia loves The Adventures of Tom Sawyer so she brings Tom through the enchanted circle to join the trio on a sometimes-humorous roller-coaster ride of an adventure as they try to unlock the mysterious secrets surrounding a tunnel under the Pierce School for Young People. Details about Tom's actual story are interspersed with the plot. Unfortunately, the too-frequent interruptions and asides from the narrator, Bartholomew Inkster, LF (Literary fussbudget), derail the story's flow. Using italics to delineate these musings from the action itself, Samson has Inkster comment on miscellaneous ideas about literature and current mores and values. In spite of this intrusion, readers will find this installment a lot of fun as the trio goes on their search.—Renee Steinberg, formerly at Fieldstone Middle School, Montvale, NJ