User Reviews

June is at the yellow pages looking for a TV repair man; the TV is down and the boys have nothing to do for the weekend without a TV. Ward suggests the boys read a book; Beaver wants to know why they are being punished. Ward brings them The Adventures of Tom Sawyer to read together. Beaver wants to know if there are pictures.

It's night and the boys are in bed together reading the book under the covers. June comes in and YELLS AT THEM FOR READING A BOOK, it's one o'clock in the morning. It's morning, the rain has stopped so Ward has decided to paint the garage doors. June finds the boys still reading so SHE STOPS THEM and sends them out to play. Ward is interrupted by Fred Rutherford, Ward is needed for a meeting at the country club. Wally and Beaver offer to paint the garage doors. June has been reading the book and June wants to know if Ward read Tom Sawyer recently; Tom lied, cursed, and smoked among having other bad habits. Ward says he doubts if the boys will take the book literally. We know not completely literally, but just enough to make a mess.

Wally and Beaver are painting but the job is becoming tiresome. Not to mention messy. Lumpy stops by to see if Wally can go to the movies. They can't because they are having fun. They invite Lumpy to have fun, but Lumpy isn't completely stupid. Larry Mondello stops by but he doesn't want to have any fun either. Beaver is wondering why this isn't turning out like Tom Sawyer. While Wally is in the house, little Bengie stops by and he's willing to have fun. So much fun he pours a can of green paint over himself. Mrs. Bellamy stops by and blames Wally and Beaver for her son being green. June has had it. The boys are to stop, clean up the mess, and go upstairs and clean up. June is convinced the boys will soon start imitating Tom in other ways. So, when Ward gets home, June wants him to go upstairs and stop all the Tom Sawyer reading. The boys already know the book is fiction. Wally says he knows, if he went around acting like Tom today people would think he was a delinquent. Ward reaffirms Wally's thinking and adds while Tom might have done some of those things, it was in a different time. Wally understands and Beaver is pretty sure he gets it too.

Ward come down to put the book back in the bookcase and June wishes it had never come out. Ward defends Tom Sawyer and reading. Ward insists reading promotes imagination, ideas, even insight into people. No, the overall benefits one gains are too important to stop the boys from reading. Even if we get a green Bengie. Yes, affirms Ward, even if we occasionally get a green Bengie.

Earlier on Ward mentions how much he loved to read when he was a boy. He even borrowed his mother's library card so he could read twice as many books. I too read a lot when I was a boy. When I was a boy the library offered three library cards: child, high school, and adult. One of my proudest days was when the head librarian at the main branch awarded me an adult card when I was in the eighth grade. She recognized me for being the voracious reader that I was. During my teaching years I found library cards were carried by only one in five students. Many kids just didn't grasp the idea of reading a book for fun. If a book wasn't assigned then indeed reading it was a punishment.

This in another episode where June disappoints me. It's implied throughout the series that June didn't go to a college but to a finishing school. It seems being a Bronson, June's family name, means the males get an education; the females, something less. It's a be a good thing that Ward received an education in the Navy and one at college.