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Summary
Summary
Johnny Tremain, a young apprentice silversmith, is caught up in the danger and excitement of 1775 Boston, just before the Revolutionary War. But even more gripping than living through the drama of Revolutionary Boston is the important discovery Johnny makes in his own life.
Author Notes
Forbes was the author of six historical novels and four books of nonfiction for adults, as well as the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in history in 1942 for her adult biography, Paul Revere and the World He Lived In Paul Revere and the World He Lived In (1942). Yet Forbes's reputation is primarily as a children's writer, resting particularly on Johnny Tremain (1942), an offshoot of her research for the adult Paul Revere biography and considered by many the best example of historical fiction ever written for children.
Johnny Tremain follows the story of a silversmith's apprentice as he stumbles into the American Revolution and gains insight into his own character. In writing about the life of an ordinary citizen of Boston at that time, Forbes wanted to show, in her words, "not merely what was done but why and how people felt." Originally intending to keep Johnny neutral during the Revolution, she changed her mind as a result of the advent of World War II, because she saw parallels between the two wars and wanted to show young readers those parallels. Although this may have resulted in some pushing of contemporary ideology onto a historical setting, most critics have praised the story's accuracy. It was and remains an important book for promoting the idea that young readers can grasp mature writing.
Forbes's only other book for children, America's Paul Revere, summarizes that man's life.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-8Esther Forbes classic Newbery winner of 1944 comes to life again for a whole new generation of youngsters who missed the 1960's Disney film version of the book. While many books and films of those eras appear dated and are unappealing to today's youth, Johnny Tremain still evokes the ideals and passions leading up to the Revolutionary War. The stirring speeches of Samuel Adams and James Otis that defined the principals of freedom ring true across the years. Most historical videos produced today do not openly promote patriotism as did the films of a prior generation, so Johnny Tremain will be something of a new experience for today's students. Purchase this fine live-action video not just because it is an entertaining rendition of the book, or because it clearly delineates the revolutionary ideals, but also because it is a good introduction to daily life in colonial Boston. Viewers will see a printing press in action, learn about the apprentice system, observe silversmithing, learn about the pervasive influence of Puritanism on daily life, and quickly realize the advantage the American militiamen had over the scarlet coated British troops. This video would be an excellent "hook" to use in media center or classroom units of Newbery reading to encourage students to read some of the older titles whose outside covers and number of pages often turn off readers. It would be equally at home in American history classes with its many facets of the early American experience. All public libraries and schools that teach American history should place this great video on their needs list.Linda R. Skeele, Western Elementary School, Georgetown, KY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Blackstone has published a splendid quintet of women writers. In Final Curtain, May competently interprets Marsh's poisoning mystery. The Game is a more complex, introspective story of relationship, aesthetics, identity, and the ownership of ideas, which is animated by May's impressive artistry. Cassidy is an excellent choice for Dillard's epic The Living; she aptly chronicles the arduous lives of Washington settlers and their descendants and their interactions, violent and benign, with Chinese immigrants and Native Americans. Johnny Tremain, the children's Revolutionary War classic is well told but is somewhat diminished by a reader who is so vocally disparate from the protagonist. The impact of My Antonia is similarly affected, compounded further by a stilted, self-conscious enunciation that further distances the listener. All titles are presented in sturdy vinyl boxes. ~--Barbara H. Baskin
Excerpts
Excerpts
On rocky islands gulls woke. Time to be about their business. Silently they Rooted in on the town, but when their icy eyes sighted die first dead fish, Am bits of garbage about the ships and wharves they began to scream and quarrel. The cocks in Boston back yards bad long before cried the coming of day. Now the hens were also awake, scratching, clucking, laying eggs. Cats in malt houses, granaries, ship holds, mansions and hovels caught a last mouse, settled down to wash their for and deep. Cats did not work by day. In stables, horses shook their halters and whinnied. In barns, cows lowed to be milked. Boston, slowly opened its eyes, stretched, and woke. The sun struck in horizontally from the cad, flashing upon weathervanes -- brass cocks and arrows, here a glass-eyed Indian, there, a copper grasshopper - and the bells in the steeples cling-clanged, telling the people, it was time to be up and about. In hundreds of houses sleepy women woke sleepier children Get up and to work. Ephraim, get to the pump, fetch Mother water Ann, got to the barn, milk the cow and drive her to the Common. Start the fire Silas. Put on a dean shirt, James. Dolly, it you aren't up before I count ten... And so, in a crooked little house at the head of Hancock' on crowded Fish Street, Mrs. Lapham stood at the foot of a ladder leading to the attic where her fathe-in-law's apprentices slept. These boys were luckier than most apprentices. Their master was too feeble to climb 1adders; the middle-aged mistress too stout. It was only her bellows that could penetrate to their quarters -- not her heavy hands. "Boys?" No answer. "Dove?" "Coming, ma'am! Dove turned over for one more snooze. Frustrated, she shook the ladder she was too heavy to climb. She wished she could shake "them limbs of Satan." Excerpted from Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
