“Clara and the Bookwagon” is a reader that I recently
discovered at my local library. It’s an older book, but one which I enjoyed so
much I wanted to recommend it.
Clara is a farm girl living in Maryland around 1900. She
does not go to school because there are no schools for farm children. Instead,
she spends her days working hard on the farm. She has a vivid imagination and
loves stories and has a secret wish to learn how to read.
When she visits the general store in town with her father,
she wants to borrow a book from the free book station located there, but her
father refuses, telling her, “Farm people like us do not have time to read.”
Some time later, Miss Mary comes to visit her farm with her
traveling book wagon. She tries to lend Clara a book, but the young girl
remembers what her father said and turns it down. The librarian offers to go
talk to her father for her and even offers to teach Clara to read.
This wonderful tale is based on the true story of Mary
Lemist Titcomb, the head of the Hagerstown, Maryland public library, who
started book stations in general stores, churches, and homes. In 1905, she
began the first horse-drawn bookmobile.
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