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Appelt, Kathi, and Jeanne Cannella Schmitzer.
DOWN CUT SHIN CREEK : THE PACKHORSE LIBRARIANS OF KENTUCKY
New York : HarperCollins, 2001.
IL 3-6. RL 6.7
ISBN 006029244X

2 booktalks

Booktalk #1

Just imagine, it is 4:30 in the morning and a woman is riding an old horse up a cold, steep mountain path;  it is freezing and a light rain is falling.  The woman's saddlebag is filled with books to be delivered to poverty stricken people who live along her route.  Enthusiastically awaiting the tattered books and magazines in her saddlebags are families and school children. One woman walks nine miles to meet the book woman and exchange her books and magazines.  This is a day in the life of a pack-horse librarian.  The authors present captivating information which takes readers back to the Depression era in Appalachia.  This book is sure to leave readers with an appreciation for the pack-horse librarians and a desire to discover more about the Depression Era, as well as FDR’s programs that were established to relieve the  poverty and suffering during this time.
Prepared by: Mary Tyler for South Carolina Children's Book Award

Booktalk #2

During the 1930's, the country was suffering an economic depression.  Many people were out of work and many lost their homes.  President Roosevelt knew the government had to help somehow.  The Works Projects Administration was introduced to help people find work.  Most of the jobs created by the WPA were meant for men.  They built roads, cleared land, and other physical projects.  There was a need to create jobs for women as well and the government set up public libraries to serve the population.  In rural areas, mobile libraries served the population.  But in the backwoods of Kentucky, the hugh bookmobiles were useless.  The enterprising women of the hills devised another way to deliver books.  They became the packhorse librarians and this is their story.

Non fiction SUBJECTS:     Packhorse librarians -- Kentucky.
                        Rural libraries -- Kentucky.
                        Depressions 1929.
                        Mountain life -- Kentucky.
                        Kentucky -- History.
                        United States. Work Projects Administration. Kentucky.

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