Description: Scrib ran away from home the day before his thirteenth birthday, and has since become a letter-writer with his own circuit. His circuit includes a lot of interesting characters including love-struck rancher Romulus, writing to his sweetheart; Paiute Indian Pierre, who writes angry letters to President Lincoln; and the infamous outlaw Crazy James Kincaid, who just wants to let his family know he's all right. When Scrib senses he's being followed, bad things start to happen. Someone, it would seem, doesn't want Scrib to write any more letters. He makes a disastrous attempt at leading a normal, stationary life, changing his name to Billy (short for William, his given name), before discovering that he'll always be Scrib.
Review: Advertised as a humorous look at the Wild West, "Scrib" fell far short of my expecations. I hardly laughed throughout the entire book. Scrib is a boring main character without much to say; the other characters at least have a little personality to them. Scrib's narrative is comprised of slang and on-purpose spelling and grammatical errors that drove me crazy, though are supposedly part of the charm of the book. The plot is decent, but Scrib was too boring for me to really get into it. I skimmed through the entire middle section of the book, and don't feel that I really missed anything exciting. Despite its shortcomings, however, "Scrib" may find a fanbase among younger teens and fans of YA westerns, though I wouldn't recommend it as humor.