The Promise of the Packhorse Librarians
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Union Square Kids
pub. 8.12.2025
48 pages
Ages 4 - 8
Author: Lauren H. Kerstein
Illustrator: Becca Stadtlander
Characters: Kentucky Packhorse Librarians
Overview:
"Following the Great Depression, literacy rates in the country had dwindled, and education and opportunities were harder to come by, especially in areas like rural Appalachia. But still, there was a dream: a vision of a nation in which reading was accessible to all—even those in the most remote places.
The Packhorse Library project of the 1930s and 1940s called upon Kentucky women to make that vision a reality and rise to the difficult and demanding job of delivering books on horseback. The Packhorse librarians were brave, steadfast, and resilient. For years, the women endured rough terrain, harsh conditions, and exhaustion. And with each book delivered and reading lesson taught, the librarians ushered in a new era for Kentuckians."
Tantalizing taste:
"Visit after visit,
librarians wove books and stories into
the fabric of their neighbors' lives.
And as literacy FLOURISHED,
new ideas did too.
Though they might travel for hours without seeing another ...
nature's hymns provided a constant companion.
WIND WHISTLED.
BIRDS SANG.
CREEKS BURBLED.
Hearts rose with each steadying beat.
The librarian packed up to go."
And something more: Who were the Packhorse librarians?
"By 1939, more than thirty women rode horses or mules (that they had to rent or borrow) over assigned trails to deliver books to schools and homes in the communities in which they lived. Roughly fourteen rural libraries had been established. Many women were married and raising children alone because their husbands had left to find work. It was up to the women to support themselves and their families."
What impact did the Packhorse Library Project have?
"The Packhorse Library Project helped thousand of families learn to read. This led to new skills, jobs, and hope during a dark time. In 1937, circulation had reached 60,000 books per month. Packhorse librarians visited 26,000 families and 155 public schools.
This powerful program even inspired Kentucky Representative Carl D. Perkins to request the first federal funding for public libraries. As a former one-room schoolhouse teacher, he’d received life-changing visits from Packhorse librarians.
With tenacity, courage, and compassion, Packhorse librarians changed lives one book at a time."
How Ursula Marvin Mapped
Moon Rocks and Meteorites
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
A Paula Wiseman Book
(Simon & Schuster)
pub. 10.14.2025
64 pages
Ages 4 - 8
Author: Sandra Neil Wallace
Illustrator: Nancy Carpenter
Character: Ursula Marvin
Overview:
"While attending college in the early 1940s, Ursula Marvin fell in love with geology, but when she asked her male professor about making the field her major, he tried to stop her, saying it would be a better use of her time to learn how to cook. Ursula studied geology anyway, eventually getting her master’s and PhD in the subject.
As a visionary and groundbreaking geologist, Ursula also had to be brave. She believed meteorites held the key to unlocking the origins of the solar system. To prove it, she travelled to Antarctica where she faced fierce winds, the coldest climate on Earth, and cracks in the ice that could have crushed her, but she knew the danger was worth the risk and scientific exploration wasn’t just for men. She proved her theory and that meteorites could be made up of pieces of planets or the moon.
Ursula Marvin charted new territory as a scientist and fought gender discrimination at every turn in her career. She broke barriers in science, helped create the field of planet geology, and discovered theories that are now foundational, reshaping our understanding of the universe."
Tantalizing taste:
"Wavy, black meteorites on ice fields, turquoise blue.
Specimens as small as berries on rippled gray slopes.
Foot-long meteorites older than Earth, their crusts a velvety brown like the skua birds flying above, and just as rare.
Whenever Ursula discovered a meteorite, she heard the ice hum beneath her snowmobile.
That week, the ice hummed 159 times."
And something more: Sandra Neil Wallace in the Author's Note notes: "Back then [1940s], it was nearly impossible for women to have science careers...She became the first faculty member in Harvard's geology department and the first woman president of the Meteoritical Society. She pushed for equal access and pay equity for women scientists by launching the first women's program at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory - the location of Ursula's main laboratory."
Nan Songer and Her Arachnid WWII Army
A TRUE TALE WITH
A CHERRY ON TOP
Calkins Creek
(Astra Books for Young Readers)
pub. 5.10.2025
48 pages
Ages 4 - 8
Author: Penny Parker Klostermann
Illustrator: Anne Lambelet
Character: Nan Songer
Overview:
"'Venomous spiders, delicate silk, and science experiments filled Nan Songer’s days and nights—her home in California overflowed with many-legged critters.
With inspiration from a friend, Nan began to study how spider silk could be harvested. The finely woven material spiders used to create webs was much stronger than it looked, and Nan was eager to unlock its potential and hopefully help her country at the same time.
At the height of WWII, she studied different spiders before landing on the poisonous black widow as the perfect spider to experiment with. Their strong silk could be used for crosshairs on rifles, which Nan used to fill massive orders for the US military. Despite the danger posed by black widows, Nan wasn’t deterred—she wanted to play her part. Using a device she built for extracting silk, Nan humanely used it on the deadly spiders to get both extra fine and super heavy silk.
Tantalizing taste:
"Spiders filled one whole room!
Species that might eat their roommates lived in jars.
Others lived in cabinets with screen doors.
Some wove their webs in windows.
Nan put branches in the spiders' homes, so they' d have a place to spin.
When thousands of spiders took over her home, feeding them wasn't easy.
She captured bugs and moths at night, raised crickets and fruit flies in jars, kept grubworms in crocks filled with sawdust, attracted gnats with sweet bait and flies with garbage. She even sprayed mist in their homes to take the place of the dewdrops they drank outdoors."
And something more: Penny Parker Klostermann in the Author's Note explains: "The fact that black widow spiders were one of the species Nan worked with certainly got my attention. In her papers she admitted that, initially, she feared them...But after working with them, she found they were the least aggressive species in her spidery and felt they feared her more than she feared them... [When] Nan's supply ran low... people mailed them to Nan, which was against postal regulations but since spiders were needed to help with the war effort, she was issued a special permit so she could receive the spiders."
