Ink on His Fingers by Louise A. Vernon

This was a pre-read for Simon. I came at it with a grudge for two reasons:

(1) I've really soured on the "historical fiction with overt Christian emphasis" sub-sub-genre lately. These books get raves in homeschooling circles, but they are generally wooden, predictable, and moralistic. Ugh.

(2) I've OD'ed on the "historical fiction with a child as apprentice to a major historical figure" sub-sub-genre, perhaps because we've done The Second Mrs. Gionconda and I, Juan de Pareja in quick succession. I get that this is an obvious was to write YAL on an historical figure, but enough already!

But to my surprise, I like this book. The wooden-ness and cheap moralizing were there, but there is a scene which is positively brilliant: the child approaches all of the wealthy people in town to get money out of them to support Gutenburg and each one has a different reason for believing that printing will never catch on.