"Books are for rich people. Farm people like us do not have time to read," Clara's father tells her at the beginning of the 20th century. The free library in a nearby Maryland village is thus off-limits to the curious child, but Clara's chance encounter with librarian Mary Titcomb and the first horse-drawn "moving library" changes her father's response. A glimpse of childhood without schools, libraries, literacy and books is presented in easy-to-read historical fiction. (Ages 5-9)

Papa will not allow Clara to learn to read—he says that ‘Farm people like us do not have time to read." But when the traveling bookwagon, with persuasive Miss Mary at the reins, arrives at their farm, Papa realizes he must change his mind. Based on the true story of America’s first ‘bookmobile.’