by Hollie Nielsen, AWC of Central Scotland & Education Team Co-Chair
I’ve been inspired by World Literacy Day and the Education Team’s September focus on literacy. One of the books I’ve read this month is The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson. In her novel, Kim describes the difficult life and dire poverty of the Kentucky hollers of the late 1930s. In addition, she writes about the Blues, a group of “white” people with a rare genetic condition that makes their skin blue. Treated as neither whites nor Blacks, the Blues are “coloreds” and suffer much prejudice and hardship. Most importantly for our literacy purposes, Kim writes about the women from the Kentucky Pack Horse library service who delivered books by horse, mule or even on foot to the remote farms of Kentucky. These determined travelling librarians, or Book Women, took books, magazines and scrapbooks of recipes and homemaking hints to men, women and children desperate for reading material. It’s inspiring to see the lengths to which the ladies went to make their deliveries and the joy of the recipients. In the book, the main character Cussy reads to those who can’t read, teaches several patrons to read and brightens their days with books, news and company. Not only is Cussy determined to deliver reading material to her patrons, they are equally determined to learn to read to improve their lives as well as entertain themselves. I would recommend this book, which touches on several interesting subjects.
Because I enjoyed this book so much, I have just started listening to a book about the same topic: The Giver of Stars by JoJo Moyes. Controversially, JoJo Moyes’s book was published after Kim Michele Richardson’s, and there’s a debate about whether JoJo took some ideas from Kim. If anyone has read either or both of these books and wants to let me know what they thought of the books, please email me at .
Looking forward, in October and November the Education Team will focus on Equal Access to Education (SDG Targets 4.2 and 4.5). I’ve started reading Bluestockings by Jane Robinson. The book describes the remarkable story of the first women to fight for a university education in England. Look for that review in the next few months!
