Here’s another great nonfiction picture book by James Rumford — From the Good Mountain: How Gutenberg Changed the World.

The book begins thus. “In the city of Mainz in Germany, around the year 1450, there appeared a mysterious thing. It was made of rags and bones, soot and seeds. It wore a dark brown coat and was filled with gold. It took lead and tin, strong oak, and a mountain to make it. What was it?”

From the Good Mountain proceeds to explain how each component of a book was made, from the paper made of rags and glue to the leather cover of goat skin, gold leaf, ink, lead type, and the printing press itself. Next it describes how Gutenberg created books. The epilogue tells more about Gutenberg (the little we know of his life), his books, and a brief history of printing over the past 500 years.

I love the clever structure of the book and the details that Rumford provides. The illustrations show the process with brightly garbed characters against the brown and grey backdrops of medieval buildings. An interesting note is that Rumford decided to portray Gutenberg clean-shaven with a headcloth or chaperon to look like a 15th century businessman, while most pictures of him have a long beard because they were created in the 16th century when beards were in style.

I commend the author for his well-written and illustrated book on the creation of early printed books!