Johnny Tremain

A well-told piece of historical fiction, taking you on a patriotic, yet not compromisingly optimistic or slanted, journey through a Boston youth that covers the events leading up to the Tea Party and the inauguration of the war for Independence. The story keeps a good pace, always moving forward and not going in for many of the cheap dramatic shots I half-expected the author to drag me through; the author had a story to tell and didn't get distracted by opportunities to string the reader along. Overall, the book unfolds historical events while also gracefully illustrating the growth of Johnny from impetuous arrogance to self-sacrificing maturity. I was also impressed with the way the book displayed the British empathetically and made it clear that they were neither evil not monstrous and that the common soldiers and officers were often friends and kin to the budding Americans. At one point says one Brit to a Bostonian, "we don't want to be here any more than you want us here."

The ending, too, was satisfying to me, showing its allegiance first to history and realism before either tragedy or romance, with just a twinge of the necessary patriotic righteousness. Overall, a well-balanced story that was well-told and interesting.