The Printer's Devil

Paul Bajoria
Little, Brown Young Readers (2005)
ISBN 0316010901
Reviewed by Ian McCurley (age 13) for Reader Views (3/07)

Mog Winter is an orphan.  He is also the printer’s devil, or the youngest apprentice of Mr. Cramplock, the printer.  “The Printer’s Devil” is set amid 19th century England when the East India Company is the biggest around and London’s dockyards are bustling with sailors, foreigners, thieves and criminals of all types.  One night when Mog and his dog Lash are delivering a handbill to a customer, Flethick, he comes into Flethick’s house and finds him and his friends in a room full of mysterious, intoxicating smoke babbling about Calcutta and India.  He knew his mother had died giving birth to him on a ship to Calcutta.  Leaving the house, he ran home, and on the way, he nearly bumped into a man with dark skin and wild, white eyes.  Running faster, he reached his home, the apartment above Mr. Cramplock’s shop and secures the door.  At a local tavern he hears a notorious con man talking about the ship, Son of Calcutta, recently docked at the London Docks.  Realizing that this could point to the identity of his father, he travels to the dock and finds papers that would incriminate the infamous Coben and a mysterious list of well-known thieves. 

Before he can make it home, he is captured by Coben and locked in a chest.  In the chest, he cuts his finger on what he thinks is a large knife.  Hours later, when a man opens the chest, Mog jumps out grabbing what he thought was a knife but was actually a sword covered in his blood.  Seeing a blood-covered sword scared the man, and Mog escaped.  On his way home, Mog spots a child his age and with a strikingly similar appearance peering up at him from a cellar.  With the help of the child, Nick, he removes the barrel that is blocking the trap door to the cellar.  Once Nick is freed, the boys steal a camel from Nick’s father, the insidious Bosun, and Nick’s caretaker, Mrs. Muggerage who is too terrible to describe.  Though seemingly just a brass camel, they will learn that this is not so.  The camel is filled a mysterious, flour-like white powder. 

“The Printer’s Devil” is a story about two kids, a mysterious brass camel and the criminal underworld of London.  The author Paul Bajoria, has a very expressive writing style.  This book is for ages 11 and up.  If you enjoy adventurous mystery stories, “The Printer’s Devil” is right up your alley.  Be sure to read Paul Bajoria’s second book, “The God of Mischief.”

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