Tom Sawyer is a boy that lives with his Aunt Polly and his half-brother, Sid. The story is set in the Town of "St. Petersburg", Missouri, inspired by Hannibal, Missouri, where Mark Twain lived.

"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" is a redolent evocation of the life in the Mississippi River town and the lives of those people who live on its shores. A somber undercurrent flows through the high humor and unabashed nostalgia of the novel, however, for beneath the innocence of childhood lie the inequities of adult reality—base emotions and superstitions, murder and revenge, starvation and slavery. Touching and funny, and always engrossing, this book is, and probably always will be, a much-read American classic that is worth reading and re-reading. The books shows the joy of childhood as well as the acceptance of change..

"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" is a riotous adventure shot through with humor, pathos and great spades full of excitement. What's more the pure joy for life that Tom, his best friend Huckleberry Finn and the other boys of Twain’s imagination go about their riotous business is a joy to behold. It takes one back and makes one pine for a simpler time when the most pressing business was whether to pretend to be pirates or go hunting for treasure.