Review of THE EXTRAORDINARY MARK TWAIN (ACCORDING TO SUSY)

Bibliography


Kerley, Barbara. 2010. The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According To Susy). Ill. by Edward Fotheringham Scholastic Press. New York. ISBN 9780545125086.

Plot Summary


Kerley uses the biographical journal of Susy Clemens, Mark Twain’s 13-year-old daughter, to provide a more accurate picture of the iconic writer’s life. Beginning with Susy’s motivation to write about her famous father, Kerley then covers the highlights of Twain’s life from his childhood in Missouri to his family life in Connecticut.

Critical Analysis


Kerley was considering writing a biography of Mark Twain when she discovered that his daughter Susy had done so at the age of 13. Trusting the insights of a teenage daughter, she combines excerpts from Susy’s biographical journal and her own commentary. Working from microfilm of Susy’s original manuscript, Kerley connects the journal entries and provides for the young reader the better-known facts of Twain’s life that Susy intended to clarify. The text and journal blend seamlessly, each picking up where the other leaves off, surrounded by Fotheringham’s double-page, subtly-toned illustrations. In a clever interpretation of Twain’s love of his own voice, Fotheringham identifies spoken and written words with swirling lines emanating from mouths, books, and even pens. When the words are perhaps a bit more colorful, the swirls shift to angles, appropriately punctuated with exclamation points.

Well-organized, the book clearly delineates Kerley’s and Susy’s words by including small “journal” pages tipped into the binding and filled with type that appears hand-written. Kerley provides background information and the reader is soon compelled to open the journal and read Susy’s side of the story. Susy proved to be an accurate biographer, as Twain included his favorite passages from her journal in his own autobiography. True to her own accuracy, Kerley appends notes on “Papa” and Susy, a brief timeline of Twain’s life, source notes, and a guide to “Writing an Extraordinary Biography.”


Awards and Reviews

A Junior Library Guild Selection


Starred Review From School Library Journal - In pursuit of truth, Susy Clemens, age 13, vows to set the record straight about her beloved (and misunderstood) father and becomes his secret biographer.

Starred Review from Kirkus - A heartwarming tribute to both the writing life in general and the well-loved humorist-oops, sorry Susy… "Pholosopher!"


Connections

Using Kerley, and Susy’s, instructions, guide students in writing a biography of a person that they know well.