Caxton's Challenge by Cynthia Harnett

Caxton's Challenge by Cynthia Harnett

A fast-moving adventure set in late 15th century England. Bendy's older brother Matthew was furious when he learned that their father, an honored scribe, had apprenticed Bendy to William Caxton, the master printer. Matthew had planned to put Bendy to work in his own scrivener shop, laboriously copying small books by hand to sell at a cheap price; and he hated the very word "printing." To him, Caxton's press-the first in England-was unfair competition. It was no secret to Bendy that his surly, unyielding older brother had even gone so far as to make arrangements with Tom Twist the peddler, to intercept Caxton's shipment of Unicorn paper for his press.

But to Bendy, the smell of the printer's ink, the heavy thud of the ponderous press, and the maddening complexities of a composing stick opened a whole new world. And, when he learned that his new master doted on tales of chivalry and stories of the knights of old, Bendy was even more pleased. Wasn't his most prized possession a tattered roll of incomplete, handwritten stories about King Arthur, written by an unknown knight named Sir Malory? So Bendy plotted cheerfully to outwit Matthew, until the eventful day when an unexpected discovery propelled Bendy and young Dick Pynson into a dangerous mission that ended in broken heads and a dramatic victory.