The Apprenticeship of Nigel Blackthorn (The Apprentice #1)
Frank Kelso
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
4.40
· 10 ratings · 321 pages · Published: 18 Oct 2017
The APPRENTICESHIP OF NIGEL BLACKTHORN is a coming-of-age story set in the American West of 1853. The story relates the adventures of a thirteen-year-old English boy whose missionary parents came to convert the wild heathens to the way of Christ.
Comanches slaughter Reverend John Blackthorn and his family before he preaches one word. Nigel survives by following his mother’s instructions to hide in a hollow tree. Pascal LeBrun, a roaming muleteer, rides to the smoke of the burning wagons to find Nigel, the lone survivor.
Plump, lazy, and spoiled, Nigel enters an unwelcome new world–work or starve. He finds survival is the way of life on the prairie. Worse yet, English is a little used third language. Two hundred miles later, when the mule train reaches the first white settlement, Pascal gives Nigel a choice: enter an orphanage, or enter an apprenticeship on the mule train for a piddling wage.
Years later, Nigel wonders if the orphanage would have been easier.
Tagged as:
- western 3
- historical 3
- historical fiction 3
- action / adventure 3
- indigenous mc 2
- exploration 1
- industrial era 1
- protagonists of colour 1
- Add topics
- format - reader age
- young adult 2
- book 1
romance tags
crime tags
literary-fiction tags
historical-fiction tags
fantasy tags
sci-fi tags
action-adventure tags
thriller tags
horror tags
Collections/Custom tags
The 'The Apprentice' series
4.40 · 10 ratings
book · exploration · fiction · action-adventure · historical-fiction · travel · indigenous-mc · western · 19th-century · historical · industrial-era · young-adult · poc-mc
The Apprentice reading order and complete book list ❯