Johnny Tremain

Johnny Tremain

First edition (US)
Author	Esther Forbes
Illustrator	Lynd Ward
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Historical novel
Publisher	Houghton Mifflin (US) Chatto & Windus (UK)
Publication date	1943 (US), 1944 (UK)
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback)
ISBN
OCLC	21002210
LC Class	MLCS 2006/43879 (P)

Johnny Tremain is a 1943 children's fiction historical novel by Esther Forbes set in Boston prior to and during the outbreak of the American Revolution. Intended for teen-aged readers, the novel's themes include apprenticeship, courtship, sacrifice, human rights, and the growing tension between Patriots and Loyalists as conflict nears. Events described in the novel include the Boston Tea Party, the British blockade of the Port of Boston, the midnight ride of Paul Revere, and the Battles of Lexington and Concord.

The book won the 1944 Newbery Medal and is the 16th bestselling children's book as of the year 2000 in the United States, according to Publishers Weekly. In 1957, Walt Disney Pictures released a film adaptation, also called Johnny Tremain.

Another Johnny Tremaine - note the different spelling of the surname - was a historical fictional character played by Rod Cameron in the 1949 Republic Pictures movie Brimestone, written by Thames Williamson and Norman S. Hall. This Johnny Tremaine was a U.S. Marshall who goes undercover to stop a cattle smuggling ring. This movie followed the awarding of the Newbery prize, but preceded the 1957 movie based on a Disneyfied version of Forbes's book.

The story begins on July 23, 1773, in the Boston silversmith shop of elderly Ephraim Lapham, where Johnny is a promising 14-year-old apprentice. It is understood that some day he will marry Mr. Lapham's granddaughter Cilla to keep the shop within the Lapham family. The shop soon receives a challenging and urgent order from wealthy merchant John Hancock to make a silver dish to replace one that Mr. Lapham fashioned decades before. While preparing Hancock's order, Johnny's hand is badly burned when Dove, an older apprentice resentful of Johnny, deliberately gives him a cracked crucible that leaks molten silver. Johnny's hand is crippled beyond use, and he can no longer be a silversmith. Johnny's youthful pride is crushed by the injury, which has made him useful only as an unskilled errand boy.