Let's hear it for LIBRARIANS! (Pause for applause.)
For LIBRARIANS PAST AND PRESENT! (More applause, please.)
For LIBRARIANS matching readers to the materials they want, need, and love! (ROAR of applause!)
(Pause to recover.)
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| WAXWING BOOKS, 2025 |
is the lyrically told account of an unnamed librarian tagged Book Woman. But Book Woman does not work from a library building. Or a bus. Or even on a road.
Talented author Caroline Starr Rose brings concise and compelling prose that contributes a lyrical tone to this history. Illustrations by Gabrielle Grimard are slightly stylized but offer the natural colors, familiar figures, and subtle finishes of a landscape from earlier times. The visual narrative reveals the joyful transactions as well as the challenging struggles of Book Woman and her clients. In this case Book Woman represents the many women who took on this important role, had a limited range of printed items to circulate, and adhered to their mission despite serious challenges.
On sprawling spreads of soft-edged landscapes across changing seasons, Book Woman follows her route through valleys and hollows, around mountain trails and ridges, knocking at doors and windows. Children and adults alike know her schedule and watch for her, welcoming pamphlets, series books, recipes, and news from far beyond their view. Brief but beautiful lines read descriptively but as poetically as a psalm:
"A cluster of clouds crowds the skies.
Streams surge. Waters rise."
Combined with images of gusting willow limbs and a shift of emotion on her face, those lines let readers feel the tension of being isolated far from home, committed to her mission but aware of impending storms. Along the way Book Woman keeps company with the ill and aging, offers suggestions and readings for the young ones, and notates requests, observing needs. On weekends, Book Women gather to exchange inventory, repair books, stitch bindings, and discuss the needs of their mountain readers. They were hired during the depths of The Great Depression and crippling unemployment by the Works Progress Administration to infuse modest income into families in Appalachia while uplifting literacy and community.
This well-researched, lovingly written, and entertaining picture book is a treasure at any time. In our present world, librarians are under siege while information and entertainment access is a click away for kids of any age. This story from history offers an engaging invitation to recognize the value of literature and its delivery. It provides a step back in time with a nod to the dramatic change in circumstances, slowing down the absorption of the story and its impact through the power of poetic pacing and phrasing combined with lush expanses of nature's best views.
If you aren't familiar with other books by Caroline Starr Rose, do yourself a favor and check out her award-winning middle grade titles, verse novels, and picture books.
Some prior posts featuring picture books about extraordinary efforts of librarians are available HERE, HERE, and HERE, with a link to a PBS documentary on the packhorse librarians HERE.
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