Book Review Club: Johnny Tremain, A Children’s Classic #review #kidlit

Recently, I re-read Esther Forbes’s children’s classic novel, Johnny Tremain, which won the Newbery Award in 1944. This was a favorite book of my childhood and seems an appropriate choice for the week of our Memorial Day holiday. Though Memorial Day was originally created to honor the dead of the Civil War, we now honor all those who gave their lives for this country, starting with the Minutemen killed at Lexington.

Johnny Tremain cover

To recap, Johnny Tremain is an apprentice silversmith in old Boston town at the beginning of the book. A complex character, he is more than a bit arrogant and full of himself at first since he’s the senior apprentice and quite talented at his trade. That is, until the awful accident that ruins his right hand. Suddenly, Johnny is plunged from his position as first among equals to least among equals. His first response is to take out his misery on everyone else. Eventually, he finds another job delivering newspapers for a radical Boston newspaper, which puts him in the midst of the revolutionary fervor. He also meets Raf, an older boy who helps Johnny and becomes a close friend.

Adversity makes Johnny into a better person and propels him into the forefront of the revolution, including the Boston Tea Party. I found some of the passages fascinating in the context of knowing the book was written in 1943.

Forbes started out as a historian, and had previously published an acclaimed non-fiction work, Paul Revere and the World He Lived In. As a result, her novel has a marvelous sense of place and time. Boston is one of my favorite US cities. I was there twice last year where I spent a day walking the Freedom Trail from Boston Common to the Old North Church.

Paul Revere Statue and Old North Church Spire

Paul Revere Statue and Old North Church Spire

This was a nice nostalgic read for me that made me want to see the Disney movie again, which is available to rent on Prime Video. I enjoyed the book just as much as an adult as I did as a child. The Kindle version contains original illustrations which I also enjoyed. This is one of the books, along with Elizabeth Speare’s The Witch of Blackbird Pond, which inspired me to want to write historical novels.

What are some of your childhood favorites?

Linda

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Book Review Club: The Lieutenant’s Nurse by Sarah Ackerman #HistoricalFiction #review

The Lieutenant’s Nurse by Sara Ackerman
WWII Historical Fiction

Lieutenants Nurse cover

Eva Cassidy boards the SS Lurline in Nov. 1941 for the voyage to Hononlulu, just days before the attack on Pearl Harbor. An Army nurse, Eva has excellent experience as an anesthetist, but must hide her background and assume a new name due to a wrongful termination at her last job. She was blamed for the death of a patient, even though the doctor was at fault. Eva is promised to Billy, the son of a friend of her father, who is already stationed at Pearl Harbor.

But on board the Lurline, she meets Lt. Clark Spencer. a tall good-looking man, who soon has her saying, “Billy who?”

The ship’s radio operator talks to Clark, who works in naval intelligence, about radio signals he’s picking up that must might indicate that Japanese ships are headed for Hawaii. Clark urges him to make a full report, which Clark will deliver to his superiors when he arrives in Honolulu. He deems it too dangerous to send unencrypted messages from the ship.

When they get to Hawaii, she re-connects with Billy and realizes she doesn’t really know him.

Clark tries to report what he learned on board ship, but his boss isn’t available, and the man he talks to dismisses his concerns. Then the threats start.

And when the attack comes, Eva’s nursing skills are tasked in ways she’s never experienced.

Excellent historical fiction with a strong romantic subplot. There’s a lot of fascinating information about the state of medicine and nursing in the time period, plus Ackerman’s description of the day of the attack was riveting. I really enjoyed the book.

Linda

As always, click on the link below for more great reviews in Barrie Summy’s Book Review Club!

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book review blogs
@Barrie Summy