[Johnny Tremain] was first published in the United States in 1943 and is now accepted as a classic in both our countries. [Fisher is a British critic.] It deserves the title because the author has so skilfully related personal and national issues, but far more because in Johnny she has created a very real person, a boy whose faults are first his undoing and then his salvation. To see a self-satisfied boy become a man, under stress, is just as exciting as it is to read of how the ideal of freedom was fought for and died for. Beyond the fascination of technical and period detail, and the easy narration, there is in this historical novel a depth of compassion and a lively intelligence that makes it essential and acceptable reading for all young people.