Penrod

Penrod follows the humorous misadventures of Penrod Schofield, an imaginative and mischievous 11-year-old boy growing up in a Midwestern American town in the early 1900s. Often called “the American Tom Sawyer,” Penrod finds himself in one scrape after another — from disastrous school plays and awkward crushes to wild neighborhood schemes and family embarrassments.

The book affectionately satirizes small-town life, childhood innocence, and the sometimes-ridiculous expectations adults place on children. Tarkington portrays boyhood with warmth and realism — Penrod isn’t a saint or a hero, but a very real boy who means well and blunders often.