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Book reviews | Heather Henson's tales capture life in small towns - Courier-Journal

Posted: 14 Nov 2009 12:53 AM PST

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In this engaging, multilayered story, Henson skillfully weaves tragedy, romance and comedy as well as loads of theatrical history, legend and lore. Readers get a first-hand look at acting and a behind-the-scenes look at stage production.

As fully drawn characters make grand entrances and exits in Chekhov's "The Seagull," and Euripides' "Alcestis," Junebug and the theatrical company head toward imminent disaster: Will the show go on?

'That Book Woman'

In this picture book, Henson moves back in time to the 1930s when literacy was spread across the Kentucky hills one book at a time by librarians who made their rounds through Kentucky's hollows and up steep mountains on pack horses. The author's poetic ear for language and storytelling shine as bright as a new silver dollar:

My folks and me --

we live way up

as up can get.

So high

we hardly sight

a soul --

'cept hawks

a-winging in the sky

and critters

hid among the trees.

That's the voice of Cal. He is not for book learning like his sister Lark who "would keep her nose a-twixt the pages of a book daybreak to dusky dark if Mama would allow." But, he is the first to hear "the clippety-clop of the sorrel mare" as the book lady makes her rounds through rain, fog, snow, cold. One wintry day — when even the critters of the wild know to keep hidden — the book lady tap, taps on the window.

The boy's thoughts turn to wondering about: How did that lady get so brave? and What is so important about books? In this lyrical and touching picture book (which evokes the poetry of James Still, who also rode those rounds), Henson pays tribute to the Pack Horse Librarians of the Depression who delivered books throughout the Appalachians.

David Smalls' ink, watercolor, and pastel illustrations evoke the hard life of Cal's family (some might say going a bit too far with Mama pregnant and barefoot), and the determined journeys of the book lady. This is a masterful, heart-tugging story about the importance of reading.

Marie Bradby is a writer who lives in Louisville.

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Book Reviews

Saturday, November 14, 2009