Why a Booktrail?
1930s: Based on a true story of horse-riding librarians who were the Great Depression’s bookmobiles
The Giver of Stars
What you need to know before your trail
England, late 1930s, and Alice Wright – restless, stifled – makes an impulsive decision to marry wealthy American Bennett van Cleve and leave her home and family behind.
But stuffy, disapproving Baileyville, Kentucky, where her husband favours work over his wife, and is dominated by his overbearing father, is not the adventure – or the escape – that she hoped for.
That is, until she meets Margery O’Hare – daughter of a notorious felon and a troublesome woman the town wishes to forget.
Margery’s on a mission to spread the wonder of books and reading to the poor and lost – and she needs Alice’s help.
Trekking alone under big open skies, through wild mountain forests, Alice, Margery and their fellow sisters of the trail discover freedom, friendship – and a life to call their own.
But when Baileyville turns against them, will their belief in one another – and the power of the written word – be enough to save them?
Locations
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Travel BookTrail style via donkey to the Pack Horse Project, Kentucky
The Pack Horse Project was started in 1913 by a woman who realised that around a third of Americans at the time had not reasonable access to libraries.
The first library was started in Paintsville, a small town in Eastern Kentucky. This is a remote area and people there find it hard to get deliveries and supplies as easily as in other parts of the country. Many people in the Appalachian area of the state found libraries impossible to get to and illiteracy was a problem as a result. The early supporters of the scheme knew that increasing access to books meant that education could be encourage and that people would have a greater chance of moving out of poverty.
Libraries nearby decided to help if a service could be set up to get the books to rural communities. The first pack horse library was administered by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) until the WPA took it over in 1935. By 1936, there were eight pack horse libraries in operation.
“Book women” were hired to deliver books in the Appalachians via horseback or on mules. Over the course of a month, women would ride and walk an average of 4,905 miles.The book packs that the librarians carried could hold around 100 books.
Bookmobiles were finally set up in the 1950s replacing the donkeys and mules.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: The Giver of Stars
Destination : Kentucky, Paintsville Author/Guide: Jojo Moyes Departure Time: 1930s
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