Huck Finn is a Worthy Adventure in Reading

Only Mark Twain could have one of his characters start a novel by referring to his previous book - and get away with it.

Huckleberry Finn is a teen-age boy in the South, who in the sort of prequel to this book(The Adventures of Tom Sawyer), is introduced to the reader as the " pariah" to all the respected families' parents - and, thus, the most attractive boy of all to their sons.

Huckleberry's own life is one of utter familial neglect. His mother is dead and his father is in jail, except when he manages to escape and come after Huckleberry's money. Huck got this money in the Tom Sawyer book when he and Tom found a treasure.

Twain creates in Huck a character who has to make a deep moral choice( he ponders whether to help a runaway slave named Jim who has been his best friend - and decided that he will, even though it means " he will go to hell") with dire consequences.

The story is mainly about how both Huck( who escapes from his father and civilized society) and Jim manage their rides to freedom. They meet with many adventures along the way and Huck continues to show the good common sense that you can't get out of any ' book-learnin'.

Huck and Jim manage to dodge one problem after another - with the sometimes dubious help of Tom Sawyer. The story is truly a tale of romantic adventure tempered through the medium of the unique time and place that was the American slave South.

The adventures that Huck has may make some people feel the story is not for children, but the decisions Huck makes is exactly why any child who can handle the reading vocabulary(a bright 10 year-old or the average 12 year old should be able to) should read this book.

Sometimes the book gets banned because it uses the N- word frequently and perjoratively. This is NOT gratuitously used as the word was a common part of speech in the slave South and any portrayal of this era in a story featuring a runaway slave Not using the word would be unrealistic.

This is the first great American novel - and still has a strong claim to being the greatest one.