A never-before-published, previously unfinished Mark Twain children?s story is brought to life by Caldecott Medal winners Philip Stead and Erin Stead. ? IN A HOTEL IN PARIS ONE EVENING IN 1879, MARK TWAIN SAT WITH HIS YOUNG DAUGHTERS, WHO BEGGED THEIR FATHER FOR A STORY. AFTER THE GIRLS CHOSE A PICTURE FROM A MAGAZINE TO GET STARTED, TWAIN BEGAN TELLING THEM THE TALE OF JOHNNY, A POOR BOY IN POSSESSION OF SOME MAGICAL SEEDS. LATER, TWAIN WOULD JOT DOWN SOME ROUGH NOTES ABOUT THE STORY, BUT THE TALE WAS LEFT UNFINISHED . . . UNTIL NOW. ? Plucked from the Mark Twain archive at the University of California at Berkeley, Twain?s notes now form the foundation of a fairy tale picked up over a century later. With only Twain?s fragmentary script and a story that stops partway as his guide, author Philip Stead has written a tale that imagines what might have been if Twain had fully realized this work: ? Johnny, forlorn and alone except for his pet chicken, meets a kind woman who gives him seeds that change his fortune, allowing him to speak with animals and sending him on a quest to rescue a stolen prince. In the face of a bullying tyrant king, Johnny and his animal friends come to understand that?generosity, empathy, and quiet courage are gifts more precious in this world than power and gold.