Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

When one falls in love with the main character, when that character surprises with her persistence to do well in the face of adversity, one becomes anxious and scared for what might happen next, then relieved that once again, this Pack Horse librarian has survived still another horrifying experience. Backed by extensive research into this WPA program, the intriguing blood disease of methemoglobinemia, along with the harsh lives of people living in the Kentucky hills during the thirties, Kim Richardson writes a poignant story of hope for better, if only the current day can be survived. The extremes of poverty are still in our news today. Children continue to go hungry and some continue to care little for them. Cussy Mary, this pack woman, did care, brought things of great value to those people in the hills. She brought books and pamphlets, maps and magazines. Sometimes she taught them to read; others she read to. Told in the first person, one can tell Cussy Mary knows language, is a reader, reveling in stories of places she can only dream of. She describes her experiences with honesty, sometimes in sorrow, often in beauty. On the death of a child to whom she brought book nourishment, although she could not bring him food: "'Why couldn't you let him grow up?' I curled myself into a tight ball on the blood-soaked Kentucky soil, wailing for Henry and all the Henrys in these dark hollows who'd never be a common grown-up. Stuck forever as Peter Pans." And - "the July morning was boiling, the blanket of air clammy, pleated with buzzes of excitement all over the town and its tiny Independence Day celebration." I enjoyed this story, but it was a tough one to know because the basic sorrows continue today.