Emma Kielman
Grade: 10
American Literature
Due: 9-22-14
Johnny Tremain
A classic is something you read in school or around the Christmas tree every Christmas. A classic is something that has stood the test of time, and that has been passed down through generations bringing its history to our culture today. It implies continuance and consistence, and has artistic quality along with enduring values that can teach us a lesson or two. Johnny Tremain has all of these moving characteristics and more in this charming book that Ester Forbes wrote.
Classic books are books that have been passed down through generations and have stood the test of time and convey as much to readers in 2014 as they did in the 1900s. Esther Forbes began to write Johnny Tremain on December 8, 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed. She worked on the novel at her home in Massachusetts, completing it in 1943.
Johnny Tremain
DVD cover for Johnny Tremain
English: Road through TremainJohnny Tremain has been published for seventy-one years! Normally, books that have been published for fifty or more years are classified as classics. Not only do classic books have to be published for fifty or more years but they have to be popular. Hundreds and thousands of copies of Johnny Tremain have been sold over the world. So many people have benefitted from this fantastic book that it won the John Newberry Medal, an award given to an author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children, in 1944.
A classic implies continuance and consistence. A classic might find its way to the reading list of schools and libraries. This isn't saying that works are "classic" because they are studied by students in an academic setting, but they need to enrich the human mind. Not only do classic works of literature become part...