Endymion Spring By Matthew Skelton

This is my first post of a book I have only started, but so far, it's awesome! Endymion Spring is the double story of a mute boy who works as a printer's apprentice and an American boy whose mother was an Oxford student, and goes back to do work sometimes.

The mute printer's apprentice is Endymion Spring. They say that right in the beginning, so I'm actually not spoilling it. Endymion's teacher is Herr Gutenberg, who has figured out how to print multiple copies easily with ink and letter squares.

One night, a strange man comes and visits Gutenberg. His name is Johann Faust, and he has brought a strange, demon-covered box with him- and a deal. He will supply Gutenberg with enough cash to print many books, including Bibles, with the printing press, for a share in the profits. That agreement brings Endymion Spring into a long journey, including opening things that can only open by the taste of blood, stories of magic, child-eating books, a tree that was once inhabited by a dragon of all knowledge, and paper that lives! But that is only one half of the book...

The American boy is Blake, just a normal, average kid. His parents just were in a fight that is reffered to as the Big Argument by Blake and his little sister, Duck (the backstory of how Duck got her name is pretty interesting!). Because of the fight, or at least I think because of the fight, Blake, his mom and Duck all went to Oxford so their mom could study for one of her reports and meet with the Ex-Libris Society, an old group she was in.

When exploring the Library one day, Blake felt one of the books prick his finger. He took it out, and can you guess what the cover said? Endymion Spring (OMG!). The pages of the book, quivered, as if alive (that should sound familiar... hhmm... are these stories connected, by any chance?) and words started to write themselves in the book, words only Blake can read... this book plunges him into riddles, mysteries, old legends, the Ex-Libris Society and even a battle with the Person In Shadow, a mysterous and annonymous member of the Society who wishes to find the forbidden book of knowledge that is Endymion Spring... (I think I'll just stop there, because I don't know the rest! I still haven't finnished it!)