The World's Smallest Letterpress Shop

About this book

"The World's Smallest Letterpress Shop: a not-so-ordinary day" is the story of a woman and her three dogs, Kosmo, Wally, and Rufus, who accompany her to her very small print shop every day. The woman prints day after day on very old letterpress printers in her shop. She is having difficulty getting good prints on her presses because nothing is perfect on old machines. Included in the story are illustrations and descriptions of letterpress printing tools, supplies, and techniques. After a frustrating day of printing the woman looks at her Gutenberg statue and asks for his help, then closes up shop and walks home with her dogs for the night. At night a miracle happens. Johannes Gutenberg himself, the inventor of mechanical letterpress printing, appears in her print shop, with mice dancing, crickets chirping, and owls hooting. Gutenberg fixes her presses, cleans up her shop, and prints her stack of paper through the night. In the morning, the women walks to her print shop to find her sparkling print shop and her neat stack of prints. Thankful, she is beaming and smiles at her three dogs who seem to know the secret. The book includes a glossary of letterpress printing terms, a page to show in the mirror to reveal a backwards print, and a page for the reader to draw or write on.