Historical Fiction – Johnny Tremain A Story of Boston in Revolt by Esther Forbes

Originally copyrighted in 1943, the book was renewed in 1971 and is a phenomenal example of historical fiction and has won the Newberry Medal.

The story takes place in the city of Boston during 1773. Johnny Tremain is a fourteen year old boy who apprenticed with a silversmith, and is very talented and gifted, taking his talents above the other apprentices, until there is a tragedy, where molten silver, held in a crucible spills over his right hand, making it useless because it is badly burned. Since Johnny cannot become a silversmith with his useless hand, he begins a new life, encountering historical figures like Samuel Adams, John Hancock; and Paul Revere along with historical events surrounding the Boston Tea Party and Battle of Lexington. His new dream takes him into becoming a part of our history (Forbes, 1971).

This book falls into the historical fiction genre because it uses history to re-create a time and place (Galda, Cullinan, & Sipe, 2010, p. 255), making a fictional story appear as though the character and events surrounding his life could have actually occurred during the time of Boston’s famous historical time. The events and attitudes in this book remain consistent with the period of 1773, honest social issues are portrayed, and the piece fits all criteria for excellent narration.

There are a few illustrations in the book, depicted by simplistic ink renditions of people, drawn in ink and illustrated by Lynd Ward. The illustrations present images to assist with the historical notion of the book, where the characters depicted are dressed in a manner from the period, assisting in the imagery presented by the story so that readers can see certain aspects of the time.

Questions I would ask readers include, “What do you know about the Boston Tea Party?” “Who was Paul Revere?” “What do you think Johnny Tremain should have done when the silver burned his hand so badly that he could not have continued in silversmithing?” All questions would be followed by a simple history lesson to further bring a sense of history into the activity. Response-centered projects would include a newspaper, where the students would create a paper about a day in the book, including front page news, editorials, advertisements, and articles pertaining to the main characters in the book. This would be very informative to the students as the articles would refer to actual historical events as well as be a creative way to make advertisements for products that could be purchased during the time frame. A second project could include a once/now essay where the students would write an essay about Johnny, where he began to where he would be after the ending of the book, using examples from the text to support the essay (Galda, Cullinan, & Sipe, 2010, p. 351).

I would highly recommend this title for all readers who enjoy historical fiction because it is surrounded by great events in America’s history and although it is a fictional piece, the facts surrounding events like the Boston Tea Party and the Battle of Lexington may lead to inquiring and studying these historical events in more depth.

References

Forbes, E. (1971). Johnny Tremain A Story of Boston in Revolt. New York: Sandpiper, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Galda, L., Cullinan, B. E., & Sipe, L. R. (2010). Literature and the Child. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cenage Learning.