“Edith is a packhorse librarian. Every day she travels for miles to deliver books. William lives far back in the mountains. Edith will have to ride hard to reach his family’s cabin.”
There is a storm coming, but that doesn’t stop Edith. Or her horse.
And this is what keeps her going.
As summarized in our review of Down Cut Shin Creek:
“Kentucky’s Pack Horse Library Project was part of Franklin Roosevelt’s Work Projects Administration (WPA) begun during the Great Depression to help put people to work. The Pack Horse Library Project started in 1935 in two Kentucky counties and lasted until 1943 (having spread to thirty counties), when World War II brought the U.S. economy back to life.”
In her book dedication, Emma Carlson Berne mentions Jeanne Cannella Schmitzer as one of her advisors. Schmitzer is co-author of Down Cut Shin Creek.
This picture book is a visually eloquent depiction of a day in the life of what could have been almost any of the packhorse librarians. I love that Berne included her inspiration for the book in her Author’s Note.
I think the illustrator’s depiction of the rumpled mountains lends perspective for readers to better understand the scope of what the librarians encountered every day.
“Packhorse librarians rode thousands of miles and brought books to people for nine years before the program ended. Because of them, people saw that traveling libraries could work. In the 1950s, more roads were built in the mountains, and Kentucky and many other states started bringing books to people by truck and car. Today, librarians drive ‘bookmobiles’ up to farms and cabins in the mountains. The packhorse librarians are gone. But the libraries they carried in their saddlebags are not.” — From the Author’s Note
This book is part of our Pack Horse Librarians booklist. It would be a good introduction to the idea of Pack Horse Librarians for younger readers.
It is available at Amazon.com.