The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a classic novel by Mark Twain. It is as popular as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Tom is a smart and imaginative boy, but rather mischievous. One of the most famous scene in the book is when his Aunt Polly punishes him for his mischief, that of white-washing their front-yard fence. He turns this around and avoids the work by pretending to the other boys that it's a privilege to whitewash and that he's enjoying it. The other boys end up doing the white-washing, and for considerable price of giving Tom all their favourite "possessions."
Tom lives with his Aunt Polly, a respectable home in the Mississippi River, town of St Petersburg, Missouri. He has a good friend, Huckleberry "Huck" Finn, a parentless boy who lives a life of a drifter. When Tom and his childhood sweetheart, Becky Thatcher, had a young lover's misunderstanding, and thinking Becky no longer cares for him, Tom joins Huck go-drifting and played pirates.
By coincidence, on the night that Tom and Huck were in the graveyard, Injun Joe murders the town doctor and frames Muff Potter, the drunkard, by placing the knife in his hands. The boys hid on a river island afraid of Injun Joe. The townspeople believe the boys to be dead.
On the day of their own funeral service complete with eulogies for them, they went back to town and witness it. They are eventually discovered to be in the funeral audience.
At the trial of Muff Potter, Tom becomes a hero when he stands up and points out the true murderer. Injun Joe, guilty, rushes out of the room. Another scene is a school picnic in which Tom and Becky participate. The two wander away and get lost for several days right in the very cave where Injun Joe is hiding. Somehow, they were able to escape. Tom returns to the same cave with Huck. They find Injun Joe dead, and also find his buried treasure. The two boys return to town ever heroic and divide the treasure between them. A truly enjoyable classic reading for both children and adults.