Research dossier · Arts & Letters

First Boy

novel by Gary D. Schmidt

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera — Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas

Record originEnglish Wikipedia

Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0

Source revisionMay 17, 2026

Entity authorityQ5452564 ↗

Source-derived summary

First Boy is a children's novel published in 2005 by Gary Schmidt. It was a Mark Twain Award nominee for the 2007–2008 year.

Plot summary

Dragged into the political turmoil of a presidential election year, fourteen-year-old Cooper Jewett, who has run a New Hampshire dairy farm since his grandfather's death, stands up for himself and makes it clear whose first boy he really is. Cooper never knew his parents and his birth certificate is blacked out. Who is Cooper Jewett really? Nobody knows.

Characters

Cooper Jewett

Mrs. Perley

Mr.

Editorial summary

“First Boy” enters the record as novel by Gary D. Schmidt. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what First, novel and Gary can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2005, 2007, 2008—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around First, novel and Gary.

Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“First Boy” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, First, novel and Gary provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5452564. The first chronological checks are 2005, 2007 and 2008.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for

Identifying works and editions
Tracing reception history
Finding collection records

Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

Establish the record: confirm the title “First Boy”, its source revision and the description used here.
Expand the search: follow First Boy primary sources, First Boy archive and First research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “First Boy”?
Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?

Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

First Boy history →First Boy primary sources →First Boy archive →First research →novel research →Gary research →Schmidt research →

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “First Boy” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.