History Literature / TheWhippingBoy

Winner of the 1987 UsefulNotes/NewberyMedal.

* BookSmart: Jemmy is a much more diligent student than Horace. His smarts make the bandits think he's the prince and Horace is the whipping boy, instead of the other way around.

* BookSmart: Jemmy is a much more diligent student than Horace, which makes the bandits think he's the prince instead.

Prince Horace, better known as "Prince Brat", runs away from home, and forces his servant Jemmy (whose job it is to be whipped in the prince's place whenever the prince misbehaves since it's illegal to whip royalty) to accompany him.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Whipping boys were actually TruthInTelevision, believe it or not. Children from poor families considered it a pretty good deal, despite the whippings, since they got to be educated alongside the children of royalty. Most often, however, the whipping boys were themselves from lesser nobility, though use of commoner children was not unheard of.

Prince Horace, better known as "Prince Brat", runs away from home, and forces his servant Jemmy (whose job it is to be whipped in the prince's place whenever the prince misbehaves, since it's illegal to whip royalty) to accompany him.

* BreakTheHaughty: Prince Horace gets this when he makes the foolish decision to run away. He and Jemmy get kidnapped and held for ransom, where Horace can't convince Hold-Your-Nose-Billy that he is the prince because he's rude and can't write. Then he gets whipped when the boys make their escape, and have to navigate the sewers to escape.

* DontMakeMeTakeMyBeltOff: Jemmy's job is to take spankings in place of the prince, since it's forbidden to touch royalty.

* ItsAllAboutMe: Horace, a spoiled brat that neglects his learning, constantly causes trouble, and is stuck up and haughty. He gets better about this when running from Hold-Your-Nose-Billy and Cutwater, [[spoiler:especially when they strike him]].

* LaserGuidedKarma: Prince Horace makes it a point to pull pranks to see Jemmy getting whipped. He even threatens to send Jemmy back to the streets if he doesn't scream. [[spoiler:When the boys run away from their abductors, they mistake Jemmy for the prince and spank Horace in punishment. Horace afterward is much mellower, especially when Jemmy asks him why he didn't scream]].

* MistakenForServant: When the prince and Jemmy are abducted, the abductors believe Jemmy is the prince and Horace is the whipping boy, because Jemmy has better manners and hasn't been shirking his education.

* SilverSpoonTroublemaker: Prince Horace, who's secretly called Prince Brat, counts as one. Though, all the punishments for these antics virtually fall upon Jeremy, the titular character. This bites Horace in the ass when he and Jeremy get taken prisoner by bandits after they run away. The bandits refuse to believe the insolent and illiterate Horace is the actual royal, and try to compel "Prince" Jeremy's obedience by beating his servant (since you can't strike royalty).

%%* ThoseTwoBadGuys: Hold-Your-Nose Billy and Cutwater.

* CharacterDevelopment: Prince Horace towards the end. Jemmy to a certain extent as well.

* StreetSmart: Jemmy.
* ThoseTwoBadGuys: Hold-Your-Nose Billy and Cutwater.

* BreakTheHaughty: Prince Horace.

* ItsAllAboutMe: Horace, a spoiled brat that neglects his learning, constantly causes trouble, and is stuck up and haughty.
* LonelyRichKid: Prince Horace.

* PrinceAndPauper: Horace and Jemmy don't exactly look alike, but they do manage to be mistaken for each other.

* TheRunaway: Prince Horace runs away out of sheer boredom and drags Jemmy along for the ride.

* TheScapegoat: Jemmy's role as the whipping boy.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Whipping boys were actually TruthInTelevision, believe it or not. Children from poor families considered it a pretty good deal, despite the whippings, since they got to be educated alongside the children of royalty.

* RoyalBrat: Prince Horace.

Winner of the 1987 UsefulNotes/NewberyMedalNewberyMedal.

Winner of the 1987 NewberyMedal.

* AdaptationExpansion: The book eventually got a short movie that added a lot of other things to the original plot, including Jemmy having been an orphan street rat with a younger sister (who catches rats to sell for rat-catching games). Horace also doesn't run away on a whim, but instead out of anger at his father after a prank where Horace releases rats at a formal dinner gravely offends a visiting ambassador, leaving his father to declare he's had enough, and that there will be no more whipping boy, among other punishments. Jemmy's sister is also arrested on flimsy pretenses after being falsely accused of being a thief by a rich man.

* AdaptationExpansion: The book eventually got a short movie that added a lot of other things to the original plot, including Jemmy having been an orphan street rat with a younger sister (who catches rats to sell for rat-catching games). Horace also doesn't run away on a whim, but instea out of anger at his father after a prank where Horace releases rats at a formal dinner gravely offends a visiting ambassador, leaving his father to declare he's had enough, and that there will be no more whipping boy, among other punishments. Jemmy's sister is also arrested on flimsy pretenses after being falsely accused of being a thief by a rich man.

* RoyalBrat[=/=]SpoiledBrat: Prince Horace.

* EmbarrassingNickname: "Prince Brat." [[spoiler:Horace is mortified when he hears it and realizes his subjects don't respect him, which is a key moment in his character development.]]

* RoyalBrat / SpoiledBrat: Prince Horace.

* PrinceAndPauper: Horace and Jemmy don't exactly look alike, but they do manage to be mistaken for eaach other.

''The Whipping Boy'' is a children's novel by SidFleischman.

* RoyalBrat: Prince Horace.

Prince Horace, better known as "Prince Brat", runs away from home, and forces his servant Jemmy (whose job it is to be whipped in the prince's place whenever the prince misbehaves, since it's illegal to whup royalty) to accompany him.

* TheRunaway: Prince Horace.