Introduction

Esther Forbes believed that history is not about events as much as it is about people. As a result, Johnny Tremain, a historical novel set in colonial Boston just prior to and at the beginning of the American Revolution, follows the character development of fourteen-year-old Johnny Tremain as he grows into a young man. Using a host of historical research, including official records, diary entries, and letters of actual eighteenth-century apprentices, Forbes created the story of a silversmith at first unknowledgeable, then undecided about, and finally supportive of the cause of American independence. As she said in her Newbery Award acceptance speech for the book, she was "anxious to show young readers something of the excitement of human nature, never static … and endlessly fascinating."

The book almost instantly became a staple in school literature and history classrooms...