ENDYMION SPRING, by Matthew Skelton, Delacorte Press, 392 pages, $17.95
Be careful of the heavy promotion on this one. Is "Endymion Spring" the biggest hit since Mark Haddon's "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time"? Or is it a "Da Vinci Code" for young people?
There is an element of truth in each of these comparisons —think "overkill" — and either of them would be OK with the publisher, Delacourte Press, which is enthusiastically issuing 150,000 copies of the book and publishing it simultaneously in 16 countries.
The delicate thread that holds the structure of this book together is a historical rumor that a Dutch woodblock-cutter named Laurens Coster (1370-1440) originated the idea of printing books with movable type. Then an assistant, Johann Fust, stole Coster's equipment and moved to Mainz, Germany, where he conspired with Johann Gutenberg to build the first printing press.
It's not true, of course. But Matthew Skelton jumped on this theory for the theme of his book.
Of course, there was also a young boy named Blake who appeared to Skelton in a dream. Blake was trapped in a library and was being pursued by a sinister figure. His little sister, Duck, was with him. Skelton says he wrote the book for them.
In the book, Blake himself has a dream about a library being "transformed into a magical forest. Tall trees lined the corridors, reaching up to the walls. ... Books filled the shelves, which were made from vast, interlocking branches. As he walked through the library, red, gold and vivid green scraps of paper drifted to the floor like autumn leaves."
But later the shelves were "as bare as winter. The building was cold and empty, apart from the blank book, which was once again lying on the floor, waiting for him to turn it over."
So there you are, in a parallel universe that jumps back and forth from the present to the 15th century. Blake is the modern counterpart of the 15th-century apprentice to Gutenberg, Endymion Spring, and Skelton tells their stories in tandem.
One thing is certain — this book was written for children. Whereas many so-called young-adult books published today can be just as interesting to an adult as to a young adult, this story is not like that. An adult might find it tedious, told as it is in the form of a fairy tale, with a dragon at its center.
After the Harry Potter series, maybe young people will also find it tedious. Young children may even find it condescending.
The writing style is overly dramatic, as in the too-frequent use of such adverbs as evasively, breathlessly, contemptuously and regretfully — all used on one page. And on other pages, greedily, cunningly, craftily, etc.
Describing the handwriting on a letter as "feminine," Skelton uses an example geared to children when he says that "Christopher Winters (a graphic designer) had distinctive lettering that reminded Blake of circus animals in a procession: his Js swung their trunks like elephants and his Qs sat like fat owls on branches."
E-mail: dennis@desnews.com