Johnny Tremain

Johnny Tremain is a work of historical fiction by Esther Forbes, published in 1943 and written for teenage readers. It is set in Boston in the years before and during the outbreak of the American Revolution, and its plot is arranged around real events: the Boston Tea Party, the closing of the port, the midnight ride of Paul Revere and the fighting at Lexington and Concord.

Johnny is a promising apprentice in a silversmith's shop, and the pride of his position goes to his head before an accident ruins his hand. He takes work with the Boston Observer, a newspaper on the Patriot side, which puts him inside the meetings and the organised protest gathering in the town, and into the households of the men leading them.

Forbes wrote for young readers and made the political conflict a matter of work and loyalty rather than speeches, with Johnny moving between the Boston trades and the countryside that will do the fighting. Its themes include apprenticeship, courtship, sacrifice and human rights, and it was awarded the Newbery Medal in 1944.