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A review by xterminal
That Book Woman by Heather Henson, David Small
4.0
Heather Henson, That Book Woman (Atheneum, 2008)
Of the latest humongous batch of kidlit I picked up from the library, this ended up being my favorite. It's a fictionalized exploration of the Pack Horse Library Project, an Appalachian phenomenon during the WPA days. (There's a fascinating article by Donald C. Boyd in a 2007 issue of Libraries and the Cultural Record with an overview, if you've access.) Told from the tale of an illiterate teen living in a remote area of Kentucky whose sister can't get enough of books. A bit facile when it comes to the narrator's conversion from “I don't need books, I've got farm work” to “wow, I want to read!”, as most kidlit dealing with the subject is, but I was willing to overlook that (well, okay, not completely, or this would be getting four stars) in the greater scheme of telling kids that such a system actually existed—which impresses upon them more about the importance of the written word, I think, than does the actual plot, as long as there's a follow-up “yes, the Book Women really did exist” discussion with the kid. I have another Henson sitting on my shelf waiting for me right now (the YA novel Dream of Night). After reading this, I kicked it way up the priority list; if it's as good, it'll land on my books-of-the-year list for 2011. *** 1/2
Of the latest humongous batch of kidlit I picked up from the library, this ended up being my favorite. It's a fictionalized exploration of the Pack Horse Library Project, an Appalachian phenomenon during the WPA days. (There's a fascinating article by Donald C. Boyd in a 2007 issue of Libraries and the Cultural Record with an overview, if you've access.) Told from the tale of an illiterate teen living in a remote area of Kentucky whose sister can't get enough of books. A bit facile when it comes to the narrator's conversion from “I don't need books, I've got farm work” to “wow, I want to read!”, as most kidlit dealing with the subject is, but I was willing to overlook that (well, okay, not completely, or this would be getting four stars) in the greater scheme of telling kids that such a system actually existed—which impresses upon them more about the importance of the written word, I think, than does the actual plot, as long as there's a follow-up “yes, the Book Women really did exist” discussion with the kid. I have another Henson sitting on my shelf waiting for me right now (the YA novel Dream of Night). After reading this, I kicked it way up the priority list; if it's as good, it'll land on my books-of-the-year list for 2011. *** 1/2