THAT BOOK WOMAN
By Heather Henson
Pictures by David Small
Atheneum, 2008
Category: Picture book
This is hands-down the most enjoyable picture book I have read in a very long time. I hesitate to say another single word until you go and read it for yourself.
::considers ending the post here::
Bah. I can’t do it. I have to say just a little more …
THAT BOOK WOMAN is the story of a young boy in Appalachia, a boy with little to look forward to but hard work, a boy with nothing but disdain for schooling, a boy who never learned to read and doesn’t care a whit for staring at chicken scratch anyway … until he is drawn in by the bravery and persistence of a pack horse librarian.
The author made a brave and wonderful choice, I think, when she decided to tell this particular bit of history (FDR’s Pack Horse Library Project of the 1930s) as picture book fiction. And she nailed it. The language is perfect, the voice is honest, the imagery melds brilliantly with David Small’s illustrations. The story beats … what I mean is, it has great heart. I am smitten.