During the Great Depression, Addie Cowherd dreams of being a novelist and offering readers the escape that books gave her during her tragic childhood. When her adoptive father loses his job, she is forced to leave college and take the only employment she can find–delivering books on horseback to poor coal mining families in the hills of Kentucky.
The small community of Boone’s Hollow is suspicious of outsiders and steeped in superstitions that leave Addie feeling rejected and indignant. Although she finds an unexpected friend in an elderly outcast, the other horseback librarians scorn her determination to befriend Nanny Fay.
Emmett Tharp grew up in the tiny mountain hamlet where most men either work in the coal mine or run moonshine. He’s the first in the community to earn a college degree, and he has big dreams, but witnesses the Depression robbing many young men of their future.
Then someone sets out to sabotage the library program, going so far as to destroy Addie’s novel in progress. Will the saboteur chase Addie and the other librarians away, or will knowledge emerge victorious over prejudice? Is Emmett the local ally that Addie needs–and might their friendship lead to something more?
Inspired by the real WPA program that sent librarians on horseback to deliver books to hill families in Kentucky, Kim Vogel Sawyer immersed herself in Appalachian history to tell this captivating story.
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Sexual Content - 0/5
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Violence - 1/5
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Language - 0/5
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Drugs and Alcohol - 0/5
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Summary
From: Rebecca Maney
Book Title: The Librarian of Boone's Hollow
Book Author: Kim Vogel Sawyer
What do you like about this book:
3.5 stars
"You know what books can do. You know what words can do. Don't give up. Will you promise me? Don't you dare let them make you give up."
Addie Cowherd's reception into the small community of Boone's Hollow is less than hospitable, and that's putting it mildly. Automatically considered an "outsider", Kentucky's mountain folk are leery of anyone encroaching their territory, even if the comely horseback librarian is only bringing magazines and books. In spite of their rude treatment, Addie is thankful for steady employment through the Works Progress Administration; instead of finishing her college education she was forced to take an early leave due to her family's financial difficulties. "Look for the blessings", her mother would say, but right now her dreams of becoming a published novelist have been swallowed up by dusty trails and leveled shotguns.
Emmett Tharp wonders if his college degree is of any value; forced to return home to Boone's Hollow, he is struggling to make sense of having to settle for mine employment, even if it does allow him to spend time learning the job that his father has held for so many years in order to support their family. So it was quite a pleasant surprise to discover a fellow college coed working at Boone Hollow's tiny, remote library; he and Addie Cowherd were brief acquaintances at a university social, but what were the chances of ever seeing her again, especially deep within the Kentucky hill country.
Stories within stories invade every page of this sweet tale; grace, kindness, and forgiveness hover over inherent sadness and misunderstandings as Addie discovers that "every life is a story. . . . . and the lives of these folks on Black Mountain are so unique, so rich in tradition". Perhaps Addie has found her calling after all, and perhaps hers is a story that will blend with another; with the right answer to just one question.