ADVENTURES OF MARY JANE, by Hope Jahren, Delacorte Press, June 25, 2024, Hardcover, $19.99 (young adult)
The red-headed girl from Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn gets her own book in Adventures of Mary Jane, by Hope Jahren.
Meet Mary Jane Guild — she’s on a dangerous and unpredictable adventure down the Mississippi River — and she’ll steal Huck Finn’s heart along the way.
In his classic work Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain briefly introduces “Mary Jane, the red-headed one.” In no time Mary Jane becomes the girl Huck thinks about “a many and a many million times.” Now author Hope Jahren has created for Mary Jane a life as vivid and compelling as Huck’s.
These pages will show you the real Mary Jane. A girl on her own dangerous, unpredictable journey down the Mississippi River in pre-Civil War America. Equipped with an uncanny ability for mathematics, a talent for sewing, and a bale of beaver skins, Mary Jane navigates deadly illnesses, angry mobs, treacherous landowners, outright thieves and swindlers, and more than a thousand miles of muddy water. What’s more, she thrives in the face of these challenges, thanks to support from strangers who become friends. Traveling solo requires Mary Jane to grow up fast, but it ultimately leads her to a new resilience, a love of adventure, deep and enduring sisterhood, and a blue-eyed, ponytailed boy she can’t stop thinking about. —Synopsis provided by Delacorte Press
Confession: I’ve never read Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. It’s never appealed to me. But if it’s half as interesting as Adventures of Mary Jane, it might be worth a look.
The book follows Mary Jane as she travels down the Mississippi River in the 1840s.
Author Hope Jahren fully realizes Mary Jane’s character with a depth and brightness that calls out to the reader. Supporting characters are equally layered and compelling. Their stories are bound together by Jahren’s meticulously researched setting. It’s fascinating to see the people and places change as Mary Jane moves further south.
Jahren’s writing is warm and inviting and her pacing sound. All of the “adventures” take on different flavors, with some more engaging than others. Nonetheless, Adventures of Mary Jane is a book that resonates. It should appeal to young adults and adults alike.
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