Johnny Tremain - Esther Forbes

Do you remember when you first heard of a given book?

With Johnny Tremain I can.

It was an episode of The Simpsons. One of the earlier seasons. Mrs Krabappel gives Bart the book and tells him he'll enjoy it because the main character gets his arm injured in an accident and it ends up deformed.

Bart's reply: "He does? Then they should call this book 'Johnny Deformed'!"

Yeah. So, that's all I really knew about this book until I found a copy of it at a friend's house.

And yes, Johnny does get his arm injured early on. But there is a lot more to the book than that. Johnny gets caught up in the American Revolution, he befriends a girl 'above his station', and he seeks to solve the mystery of his lineage. The book is well written and keeps the reader's interest, something very important for a book intended for younger readers. It also would help someone studying the American Revolution to learn some of the basic events, and about some of the individual figures involved.

If it can hook the attention of Bart Simpson, it must be doing something right.

Completed 29 May 2019.

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