The Printer's Devil - Hardcover

Bajoria, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316010901 ISBN 13: 9780316010900

Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers, 2005

Synopsis

After printing the "Wanted" posters for some of London's most notorious inhabitants, a printer's boy is entangled, by a genuine convict, in a series of mistaken identities and events leading back to the boy's own mysterious past.

About this title

About the Author

Paul Bajoria is a writer and producer for BBC Radio 4. He was born in 1964 to a British mother and an Indian father, and grew up in the North East of England. He took English degrees at Oxford and Toronto universities, and began working for the BBC as a local radio reporter in 1989. He lives in Northumberland with his partner and their two young children. The Printer's Devil is his first book.

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-9–A lively Dickensian adventure story in the style of Leon Garfield or Joan Aiken. Twelve-year-old Mog, an orphan, has a steady job as an apprentice printer, also called a printer's devil. After a mysterious ship called the Sun of Calcutta sails into port with an unknown but valuable cargo, he witnesses an act of thievery on the docks. Intrigued by the nature of the theft and the nasty characters involved, he investigates and meets Nick, a boy who looks so much like him that the two are often mistaken for one another. The new friends become enmeshed in an ever-deepening mystery that includes their own pasts. Like a penny dreadful, the book employs stock characters for minor roles while allowing the heroes adequate depth and character. The novel is better suited for those older children who are able to keep up with the ever-shifting loyalties and boundless characters introduced on every other page. Though the tale is enjoyable and always surprising, readers may find themselves disappointed with the scant answers at the end (not to mention the rather significant plot gaps). Large collections will want this title by a new British writer and those libraries needing to upgrade their action/adventure series might want to give it a shot.–Elizabeth Bird, New York Public Library
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About this edition

• Publisher: Little, Brown Young Readers
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0316010901
• ISBN 13: 9780316010900
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384