Reading Aloud: Johnny Tremain

For a short, but insane, period of my life I attempted to educated my children at home, start a charter school and complete 17 credit hours a semester at Southern Utah University. I cannot say I handled myself with the grace and intellect I desired; however, what can one expect when they are juggling that much in their life. While attending SUU I took an English class by professor Charles Cutherbertson. The end of the semester involved a paper about Beloved by Toni Morrison. I wasn't too fond of the book but used the symbolism of the trees the author verbally illustrated throughout the novel and tied it to the themes of freedom and liberty.

Mr. Cuthbertson (an English professor with more toys than books on his shelves) and I discussed my choice and my examples at one point. I chose to illustrate and link the symbolic nature of trees in Beloved to the Sons of Liberty and the Liberty Tree. I share this with you because I was befuddled and dumbfounded to discover my professor had heard of neither of these. Neither. Neither! I could not believe what I heard and being emotionally transparent I know my voice oozed of disappointment. He knew the longing for freedom and individual power expressed by Malcolm X. (A book on his top ten published by the SUU library.) But, knew nothing of the people who incited the call to revolution and the symbolic nature of trees attached to it. It demonstrated to me something I take for granted.

I was not going to let me children miss out on the love and passion I learned as a child for this great country and the people who paid the high price to make it so. It started a mission. I began to work on my membership to the Daughters of the American Revolution. And soon plan to add their membership to the Children of the American Revolution. I also wanted them to hear stories of lives from that time period.

I remembered watching the movie, Johnny Tremain, by Disney as a child. I loved it then. So I decided to share the book with my children. (Maybe I will also hunt down the movie.) It was an amazing and touching read. One I would definitely recommend to anyone. It was written by Esther Forbes. It is Newberry Award Winner.

Johnny Tremain is a magical historical fiction. It deals with an array of emotions from pride, humiliation, perseverance, personal triumph and forgiveness. It intertwines these lessons with the events of Boston and the surrounding areas just prior to the American Revolution. It includes the Boston Tea Party and the marches on various forts from the Bostonian perspective. It ends on a solemn and sacred note as the author details the lives lost on the morning of 19 April 1775 in the green at Lexington. (I believe.) It is apparent the author revered and reverenced these events. It is a wonderful depiction of the internal emotional struggles and the external physical struggles of these events. I am grateful for the opportunity to read this to my children.