Books that read aloud and sing.
Classic American literature, retold for young readers in full-page paintings — with complete narration and original folk ballads built into every book.
Hear a story in sixty seconds
Read a free yarn — the sampler
Classic American literature, retold for young readers in full-page paintings — with complete narration and original folk ballads built into every book.
Hear a story in sixty seconds
Read a free yarn — the sampler
Twain's beloved classic, two or three yarns at a time, for readers ages 6–10. The plot, the humor, and the moral weight are Twain's; the retelling is tuned for young readers without ever talking down to them. Every yarn has its own painted pages, its own read-aloud narration, and its own original ballad — and a hidden creature in every picture, a different companion for every yarn, because children deserve something to hunt for.
Tom slips loose, summer opens wide, and stolen strawberries taste like heaven. The world of St. Petersburg, Missouri — met for the first time.
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Aunt Polly grieves what to do with that boy, while Tom — free as any bird on the river — is busy being exactly who he is.
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Yarns get swapped, supper-table trouble boils over, and the day ends in a showdown at sunset. Three tales of a boy meeting his match.
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One Saturday, one fence, and the greatest trick in American storytelling. The whitewashing empire rises — and Tom stumbles onto a great law of human nature.
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One afternoon, one look across a yard, and the smartest boy in town hasn't a chance. Handsprings nobody asked for, a stick-and-holler war won by a general whose mind is three fields away, a pansy tossed over a fence — and one soaked and ruined boy walking home happier than he has ever been.
One Sunday, a stiff collar, and a boy who has traded away every marble he owns. Tickets bought instead of verses learned, a prize Bible carried off in front of the one girl who matters — and a single question, answered at once, with perfect confidence and entirely wrong.
Paperback Apple Books read-alongThe same hands that paint Tom Sawyer also make short civics films for families. Close to Home sets the Tenth Amendment's own twenty-eight words to an original folk ballad, carried by eight oil paintings — so young listeners come away knowing the real thing, not a summary of it.
Grown-ups come for the narration and the ballads. Children come for these.
The whitewashing empire at its height — Book Four
The preserves cellar — Book One
Aunt Polly's garden — Book One
Thirty yards of board fence — Book Four
A kite for a turn with the brush — Book Four
The little white wing — Book Four
Every page is a full painting with its caption beneath — the same characters, the same fence, the same Missouri light from book to book. And somewhere in every picture, a small creature is hiding — a different companion for every yarn. Children find it before grown-ups do.
Every yarn is told aloud, and every yarn is sung — right here on this page. The narration reads the book page by page; the ballads are original songs in the American folk tradition, written from the stories themselves. Start with the one below — sixty seconds will tell you everything.
Folio Workshop is a small American studio making illustrated literature for young readers — and making it complete. The text, the paintings, the narration, and the music are produced together, under one roof, so they always agree with each other. A family can read the book, listen along, or sing the story back.
If your family follows Charlotte Mason, you'll recognize what these are: living books that bring their own narration and folk songs with them.
The books are written and illustrated by Reed Burch, retelling Mark Twain — whose plots, humor, and moral weight need no improvement, only a fresh doorway for a six-year-old to walk through.