Best place to reread Johnny Tremain

Sure, Ally McBeal is hot right now, but the best-ever story set in Boston is still Esther Forbes's 1943 Newbery Medal-winning "children's" novel, Johnny Tremain. Forbes's story of the early 1770s as seen through the eyes of an apprentice silversmith recreates Revolutionary Boston -- Paul Revere, John Hancock, Sam Adams; the historic assembly at Old South; the Tea Party; Lexington and Concord -- with a degree of imagination and detail you won't find in a guidebook. And the best place to read it is surely Copp's Hill Burying Ground, in the North End, just above Old North Church. That's where Johnny's mother lies buried, in an unmarked grave along the Hull Street side (the street that leads up from Old North), and where, at his low point, he hides from the sentries and cries in the moonlight. Sit against the railings there, look out across the harbor at Charlestown (few burying grounds have an ocean view), and savor Forbes's tart, McIntosh-apple-like prose. Too bad she's not around to write for Ally -- but kudos to Boston for preserving Copp's Hill.

Copp's Hill Burying Ground, Hull Street, Boston.