Sonderbooks Book Review of Johnny Tremain

*****Johnny Tremain*

by Esther Forbes

Reviewed March 8, 2004.
Yearling Books (Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers), New York, 1987. First published in 1943. 256 pages.
Available at Sembach Library (JF TRE).
Winner of the 1944 Newbery Medal.

Johnny Tremain tells the story of an apprentice silversmith in Boston in the 1770s. Johnny's wonderfully skilled at working silver, and he knows it. When John Hancock commissions a beautiful piece, Johnny's not above deceiving his master and working on the Sabbath day in order to get it finished.

Then tragedy strikes, and Johnny's life changes. He gets involved with a group known as the Sons of Liberty. They're upset about the way England is treating the people of Boston. He learns that there are bigger causes out there than how a person makes a living. He supports the Revolution for the sake of the common people even in England. They begin the fight against tyranny, “so that a man can stand up.”

This novel won the Newbery Medal in 1944, and it's still a powerful story today. It looks at the start of the Revolutionary War through the eyes of a boy getting caught up in something bigger than himself.

-top of page-

Book Reviews by Sondra Eklund

****Johnny Tremain

by Esther Forbes

*****Johnny Tremain*