This is a touching book about the effect that the Pack Horse Library had on a young illiterate boy in Appalachia.
Cal has no interest in books and doesn't want to learn to read. Poor, isolated and illiterate, Cal can't figure out why this lady "in britches" returns every two weeks to bring books for his sister to read. One winter day, he decides to find out why his sister is so excited to see the book woman, and why the book woman risks her life through bad weather and rough terrain. ( )

reviewed

Independent Reading Level: Grades 2-3
Awards:
Earphones Award
Parents Choice Award 2008
Smithsonian Notable Book for Children 2008
Storytelling World Award 2008
Christopher Award 2009
Great Lakes Book Award for Best Picture Book

This is a beautiful book. I cried. It is so, so important to put good books into the hands of children. The theft of the mantle of librarianship must be reclaimed from liberals. ( )

Cal is skeptical of his sister Lark's obsession with reading, and even more skeptical of "that book woman" who rides up to their mountain home to deliver library books. When the book woman continues to come, no matter the weather, Cal decides there must be something worth knowing in there, and he asks Lark to read to him. Thus, Cal is transformed into a reader as well.

David Small's watercolors are lovely as always, and Cal's language reflects Appalachia ("I reckon," "we live way up as up can get," "I do not care one hoot"). An author's note says that the book was inspired by "the true and courageous work of the Pack Horse Librarians, who were known as :Book Women" in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky." ( )