Johnny Tremain

Recently, I read the book Johnny Tremain. It is a book about a fourteen-year-old silversmith named, Johnny Tremain. The book covers 2 whole years of his life. Johnny works for an old man, Mr.Lapham. Along with sixteen year old, Dove, and twelve year old Dusty. Johnny is working for Mr. Lapham as an indentured servant. This means that he is a servant who receives food and board from Mr. Lapham in return for his work. He will be released from his indenture to Mr. Lapham after 7 years of work total. He started when he was eleven and will be finished when he is eighteen. The book takes place in the middle of his indenture.

Once I began reading the book I got really interested in it. I really liked reading about this kid because he has similarities to me. Johnny lived around the time of the Boston Tea party and the Battle of Lexington. The battle of Lexington was in the Revolutionary war. Back when our country was just becoming America. It made me feel like this is what I might be going through if I was living back in those days.

Johnny has no sisters or brothers nor mother to nurture him through his childhood. His mother died when he was 12 years old. When Johnny was 10 his mother found out that she was going to die so she signed him into indenture with the Laphams when he was 11 so that he would be taken care of after her death.

Mr. Lapham is a silversmith who is not married. He has a daughter-in-law that is named Mrs. Lapham. She is not nice to the apprentices. She and her daughters cook and do the girl work in the house while Johnny, Dove and Dusty do the silversmithing with Mr. Lapham. Mrs. Lapham calls the apprentice’s gluttons and cretins, lazy liars and brutes because they are basically normal boys and she is just used to having girls.

Mrs. Lapham's daughters' names are Dorcas, Madge, Cilla, and Isannah. Part of Johnny's Contract of Indenture, stated that he might have to marry Cilla. This would not have bothered Johnny in the least.

When he was 14, John Hancock Esquire had ordered a silver sugar basin from the Laphams. Johnny, Dove and Dusty were ordered to make it in under a month. At the end of the month, the boys were rushing to finish the job, and broke the Sabbath law, and Johnny had burned his hand. This left his right hand handicapped. Johnny had to stop working in the silversmith shop because his right hand was injured. Johnny was given a week by the Laphams to find another job and living quarters.

After Johnny got fired, he went looking for his inheritance from his mother's side of the family. His mother was from the family of the Lytes. Her full name was Vinnie Lyte. His mom had given him a silver cup. Johnny went to Merchant Lyte (a very rich man in Boston) and Merchant Lyte did not believe that Johnny was related to him. Johnny told him that he would go and bring the cup to him to prove who he was. When Johnny came back with the cup he did not know that Merchant Lyte had been robbed of one of his 4 silver cups that matched Johnny's cup. When Johnny brought back the cup, he was accused of stealing and lying about being kin.

In the book, Johnny had a good friend named Rab. They started working together at Rab's aunt and uncle's paper, The Boston Observer. They became very good friends. Rab’s aunt and uncle lived above the print shop where they printed the paper. Johnny moved in with them and lived up in Lately I read the book Johnny Tremain. It is a book about a fourteen-year-old silversmith named, Johnny Tremain. The book covers 2 whole years of his life. Johnny works for an old man, Mr.Lapham. Along with sixteen year old, Dove, and twelve year old Dusty. Johnny is working for Mr. Lapham as an indentured servant. This means that he is a servant who receives food and board from Mr. Lapham in return for his work. He will be released from his indenture to Mr. Lapham after 7 years of work total. He started when he was eleven and will be finished when he is eighteen. The book takes place in the middle of his indenture.

Once I began reading the book I got really interested in it. I really liked reading about this kid because he has similarities to me. Johnny lived around the time of the Boston Tea party and the Battle of Lexington. The battle of Lexington was in the Revolutionary war. Back when our country was just becoming America. It made me feel like this is what I might be going through if I was living back in those days.

Johnny has no sisters or brothers nor mother to nurture him through his childhood. His mother died when he was 12 years old. When Johnny was 10 his mother found out that she was going to die so she signed him into indenture with the Laphams when he was 11 so that he would be taken care of after her death.

Mr. Lapham is a silversmith who is not married. He has a daughter-in-law that is named Mrs. Lapham. She is not nice to the apprentices. She and her daughters cook and do the girl work in the house while Johnny, Dove and Dusty do the silversmithing with Mr. Lapham. Mrs. Lapham calls the apprentice’s gluttons and cretins, lazy liars and brutes because they are basically normal boys and she is just used to having girls.

Mrs. Lapham's daughters' names are Dorcas, Madge, Cilla, and Isannah. Part of Johnny's Contract of Indenture, stated that he might have to marry Cilla. This would not have bothered Johnny in the least.

When he was 14, John Hancock Esquire had ordered a silver sugar basin from the Laphams. Johnny, Dove and Dusty were ordered to make it in under a month. At the end of the month, the boys were rushing to finish the job, and broke the Sabbath law, and Johnny had burned his hand. This left his right hand handicapped. Johnny had to stop working in the silversmith shop because his right hand was injured. Johnny was given a week by the Laphams to find another job and living quarters.

After Johnny got fired, he went looking for his inheritance from his mother's side of the family. His mother was from the family of the Lytes. Her full name was Vinnie Lyte. His mom had given him a silver cup. Johnny went to Merchant Lyte (a very rich man in Boston) and Merchant Lyte did not believe that Johnny was related to him. Johnny told him that he would go and bring the cup to him to prove who he was. When Johnny came back with the cup he did not know that Merchant Lyte had been robbed of one of his 4 silver cups that matched Johnny's cup. When Johnny brought back the cup, he was accused of stealing and lying about being kin.

In the book, Johnny had a good friend named Rab. They started working together at Rab's aunt and uncle's

to learn to ride a horse to become a delivery boy. He had been trained, and delivered papers on Rab’s horse named Goblin. He really liked riding Goblin because he was a good horse. Rab had gotten Goblin because he was a timid horse that his owner used to whip. The 4 previous owners did not want Goblin because he was very timid. Goblin became very skittish because he had been whipped so much.

Johnny overheard many conversations about the British ships that were bringing tea in illegally to Boston Harbor. He heard people like Sam Adams and John Hancock talking about how the British troops were invading Boston. And talk of a war. Then 3 British ships docked on the Boston harbor. Rab’s uncle told him to gather as many boys as he could find for the special task of helping to dump the tea into the harbor. Johnny doubted that he was one of these boys due to his crippled hand. Johnny asked Rab if he thought Johnny would be helpful and Rab said that he couldn’t do it without him. Johnny smiled, he was happy that Rab had spoke to him like a normal person, because he was.

Rab told Johnny that since he ran very fast, he would go to the speech of Samuel Adams that declared war against the British. Rab told Johnny that if Samuel Adams said one thing, he was to whistle very loudly and run back to Rab and the other troops as fast as he could. But if Sam Adams was to say another thing then he was to walk back calmly and tell Rab. I think it would be exciting to be a part of history in that way.

In many other situations Johnny was involved with the war and the political plans of our country at its beginning. He knew Paul Revere, John Hancock, and most importantly Samuel Adams. Samuel Adams was the one who declared war and the Battle of Lexington against the British. Although it was only target practice for the British as they outnumbered the Yankees 700 to 70, this was the beginning of the Revolutionary war.

In closing I think this book had a lot of detail. I enjoyed it very much because it was about a boy who was just about my age and I could relate to what he was going through. I loved how Esther Forbes knitted fiction and reality to make this story. I loved learning new things about the Revolutionary War times in our country that I never knew. I would recommend this book to everybody and anybody.