Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Johnny Tremain, Newbery Winner 1944


Well...
I was told this was a boring book. I've spent nearly ten years using it to mock my brother. But until now I didn't truly know just what this book had in store for me. Should there be any doubt as to my feelings about this book you only need to check the dates between this review and the last one. About 2/3rds of the way through the book I ran out of steam and kept putting it off for later. I'm finally done, and only because of an impending due date at the library.

In theory it should have been a great book for me. I love historical fiction and I'm positively obsessed with the American Revolution. Take this one sentence summery: A horrible accident befalls a young silversmith, forcing him to leave his trade; however Johnny Tremain soon finds himself entwined with the events leading to the American Revolution and the founding of a new country. Doesn't that sound awesome? To me it did but I was so disappointed. The writing was good, the story itself was exciting, but somewhere, something, was wrong. I've thought and thought about went wrong and as near as I can tell there isn't actually anything bad about the book but... I just didn't care. Maybe the descriptions just bogged me down; any one description by itself is fantastic and detailed, all together there is just too much.

At least I have lots of other great sources for the American Revolution that I can use instead.