Abominable Firebug [Paperback]

Richard Johnson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

As a child, Richard B. Johnson lived in two foster homes, a detention center, and a reform school. Since then, he has lived a successful life as an engineer, pilot, and musician.

Product Details

• Paperback: 172 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse, Inc. (May 11, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595386679
• ISBN-13: 978-0595386673
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,204,962 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A true survivor, July 19, 2006

By 

WST (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Abominable Firebug (Paperback)

Read about a real survivor, not that phony stuff on TV. This book is about a boy who had such a childhood that any run-of-the-mill lawyer could get him off even if he nuked the universe. First his parents kicked him out of the house as soon as he became a teenager. Then he was sent to a work-farm where he worked as an indentured servant (read slave). Next, after he accidentally burns down a barn, the state of Massachusetts incarcerates him as an arsonist in the worst possible juvenile detention center where boys were being raped by the guards (masters) nightly. Surviving this, Johnson is sentenced to a reform school where, because of his horrible past, he thinks he really had a good time.

Johnson goes into great detail about the day-to-day activities at the reform school, the very first one in the United States. A true survivor, Johnson is paroled home after completing his sentence, only to return to the reformatory because his mother told his parole officer that he "stole" (now I'm not kidding here) some ice cream from her refrigerator.

You would think that a teenager's life couldn't get any worse that that, but it does! Eventually, after much trial and tribulation, Johnson moves to another institutional foster home in Boston where he starts to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but it was a long hard pull crawling through. He even had a science fair project taken away because the government thought it violated national security. Undaunted, Johnson completes another project in about two weeks.

Anyway, the book has a nice ending. It's well written and a pleasure to read. Johnson is an expert stylist and his chapters are short with each headed by a picture. There are several remarkable poems and, at several places Johnson reflects upon an important metaphorical gateway, writing prose which reads like poetry.

One of Johnson's mentors, a chaplain at the reform school, writes the afterword of this book. This is also well written and quite uplifting.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Forget Brittany Spears. This is More iInteresting., June 14, 2006

By 

Rich Wood (Easthampton, MA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Abominable Firebug (Paperback)

Celebrity autobiographies rarely reveal any surprises. I once discovered that my next door neighbor was an (illegal) arms dealer who lived a fascinating life. Ordinary people who often aren't so ordinary are much more interesting. This book proves it.

I was raised in a fully functional family. To read about anyone who didn't have the same luxury always grabs my attention because it's so unfamiliar to me. I never got in trouble (boring life), so I'm always interested in how I should do it in the next life.

This is a fascinating story of a young boy going through the wringer of the Massachusetts juvenile "correctional" system and coming out the other end as an amazingly versatile adult. I won't tell you the ending, but just say that, if your kid is harder to handle than you'd like, have faith. You may have the makings of a Nobel prize winner on your hands.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Abominable Firebug Review, May 30, 2006

By 

Greer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Abominable Firebug (Paperback)

This book is an amazing account of a child who survived the Massachusetts juvenile justice system in the fifties. Johnson writes about his early life, starting at about two years of age, he brings us through a foster-home-farm where young boys are forced to do farm-work to earn their keep, and some, including the author, are raped and abused. Johnson then recounts his encounter with the Massachusetts juvenile court system and the Youth Service Board in Roslindale. He recounts torture and rape at that institution where boys were warehoused without a trial until there was an opening at a juvenile penal institution. Later on, Johnson goes to the Lyman School for Boys, which was the nation's first reform school. The school was closed in the seventies.

Johnson tells about his stay at the Lyman School and goes into quite complete detail about the day-to-day activities at the school. Johnson thinks this institution was really quite good by comparison to other places he had been. Johnson then goes to another foster home, Charles Hayden Goodwill Inn, in Boston. While attending school in Roslindale, Johnson stumbles onto some missile secrets while preparing for the Science Fair. A federal judge took his Science Fair project away (no, he was not making a nuclear missile) when his high school teacher got him an audience with a military contractor. With only a couple weeks left, Johnson makes another project and wins well enough so that he gets to show his project in the state Science Fair and he gets another slap on the face.

Anyway, the book continues with Johnson encountering various challenges, which he faces and handles with true grit, an honest-to-goodness survivor. The book ends after Johnson enters the radio and television industry, gets a union job, and meets his first true love.

This is a book about success. It is well written and once you start it, you won't want to put it down. I like the fact that Johnson wastes little time in developing a story so you can read the book in a single sitting. Each chapter, except the last, begins with a picture that hints of the chapter content. I don't think this was an oversight. The last chapter doesn't have a picture because it hasn't ended yet. I think this book is excellent in all ways.