“According to Susy, people were . . . well, just plain wrong about her papa.” Susy’s papa is Mark Twain, and the world thinks of him first and foremost as a very funny man. But thirteen-year-old Susy knows there is much more to her papa and begins writing her own account his life. Barabara Kerley’s engaging look at Susy Twain’s biography of her father is interspersed with Susy’s observations, and excerpts of what she actually wrote (including fold-out journal entries on some pages). When Twain’s wife discovered Susy’s work in progress she showed it to her husband, who made an effort help his young biographer out. Details of their warm and lively relationship, and Susy’s appreciative yet amusingly honest look at her father (“The animals on the farm could not care less that Papa was a world-famous author . . .”) make for a spirited picture book biography. There’s abundant humor in Edwin Fotheringham’s illustrations, while Kerley’s author’s note and additional end matter provide more welcome details, including how much Twain treasured his daughter’s accounting of his life. (Ages 7–10)

From the Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor-winning team behind WHAT TO DO ABOUT ALICE?, a humorous and intimate portrait of the most celebrated writer in America, as told by his thirteen-year-old daughter.

"This is a frank biographer and an honest one; she uses no sandpaper on me." - Mark Twain

An NCTE Orbis Pictus Recommended Book

"Inspired." -- The Washington Post

From the award-winning team behind What to Do About Alice?, comes a humorous and intimate portrait of the most celebrated writer in America, as told by his thirteen-year-old daughter.

Susy Clemens thought the world was wrong about her papa. They saw Mark Twain as "a humorist joking at everything." But he was so much more, and Susy was determined to set the record straight. In a journal she kept under her pillow, Susy documented her world-famous father-from his habits (good and bad ) to his writing routine to their family's colorful home life. Her frank, funny, tender biography (which came to be one of Twain's most prized possessions) gives rare insight and an unforgettable perspective on an American icon. Inserts with excerpts from Susy's actual journal give added appeal.