The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Mark Twain, 1876.
Before you read: The book includes a scary cave, a funeral joke, and language of its time. Read it with an older child.
Tom Sawyer would rather be a pirate than paint a fence, so he talks other boys into paying him for the chore. He and Huck Finn witness something dangerous, get lost in a cave, and turn a summer into a legend. Twain is mocking Sunday-school manners and also writing a real mystery. The Mississippi town is specific: school, church, and the river. Tom is charming and selfish. The book lets you enjoy him and still see the trouble he causes.
Public-domain text.