Hi everyone -- It's been a while--my father (92), and two dear friends (78 and 55, respectively) all died within the space of less than a month. I just had to, however, weigh in on both Twain and teens and whether Sam had read "Uncle Tom's Cabin." The trouble with too many public high schools is that teachers of literature and language are often hamstrung by dim-bulb school administrators and mediocre boards of education. But there's also the problem of parents who don't read to their children, while they're still preliterate, each night. I learned to love Sam because my dad did, and love Louisa May Alcott because my mom did, and still does. Since I was a television columnist for 15 years, I blame a lot of it on the sheer passivity of the medium; it doesn't engage a young imagination quite the way a good written story does. I remember getting so caught up in the horror of Jim finding Pap, I didn't hear mom calling me for dinner. I was 10 or 11. That my family is overstuffed with voracious readers is no accident. Anyway, just to add to the mix, Joan Hedrick's absolutely terrific life of Mrs. Stowe, which won the Pulitzer for biography in 1992, gets quite into the interrelationships among all the residents of Nook Farm. Check it out. The Twain house is also doing a really fine series featuring people such as Spike Lee and Aaron MacGruder, in tribute to Sam's on relish for causing controversy. Happy Easter to some, happy Purim to others. Kathy O'Connell Record-Journal Meriden, Conn.