Keeping the Upper Hand

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

In this blog, I want to tell you about an elementary school classic called "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Forbes which takes place during the first events leading to the Revolutionary War. I think this book would be good for people who love fiction novels that describe accurate events in history. I enjoyed this novel very much and hope those of you who take the time to read it will enjoy it as well.

Johnny Tremain by Ester Forbes

In the book, Johnny Tremain is a 14 year old boy who has taken up a job as a Silversmith. Johnny soon learns sliversmithing is a dangerous business when his coworker becomes jealous of Johnny's high status in the town due to his skill in handling metal and wants revenge on Johnny. The associate decides to ruin a sugar bowl Johnny was working very hard on, but instead of damaging his important project, he accidentally makes Johnny burn his hand instead. As Johnny recovers, he finds out his burn has crippled his dominate hand and his silversmithing career was out the window.

When the injured Johnny looks for a new job, he gets rejected at every turn because of his crippled hand. Nearing the end of his search, Johnny walks into a printing shop and finds a boy a bit older then him at the front desk. The boy is surprisingly kind to Johnny and later helps him get a job working with him as a printer...

I would give "Johnny Tremain" 5 out of 5 stars because I enjoyed the compassion Johnny and his printer friend show each other throughout the story. I also liked how realistic and detailed the pictures, story lines and characters were for the time of the Revolutionary War in the United States. Another thing that stuck out to me was the emotional wording used in the book to describe the events. It showed the true feelings of Johnny's character, and how all the other characters felt about Johnny.

Please write in the comments what occupation you would try to have if you had a crippled hand and needed to survive.