Dianne White

In spite of the huge number of picture books filling my home and school book shelves, there are some books that I pick up while browsing in the bookstore that I know I simply must buy.

That Book Woman by Heather Henson, pictures by David Small, is one such book.

This lyrical and deeply moving story centers on Cal, the oldest boy in a large family who describes himself as “not the first one nor the last one neither.”

From the very first page, I love this boy who seems to know himself well enough to declare that he “was not born to sit so stoney-still a-staring at some chicken scratch.”

Mildly curious about the strange Book Woman who rides alone delivering books to homes high up in the Appalachian mountains, Cal takes it all in, insisting “… it would not bother me at all if she forgot the way to our back door.”

But when the Book Woman arrives in the middle of big snow storm, Cal recognizes something miraculous and strange is at work.  Why would anyone risk their life to share a book?  Suddenly, Cal longs to read.

It is younger sister, Lark, who teaches Cal how to make sense of it all. The book’s subsequent pages, beautifully illustrated by David Small in ink, watercolor, and pastel chalks, reveal Cal’s softening demeanor, the edge of his initial anger gone.

By the final two-page spread, a wide smile has emerged on Cal’s face.   No longer chicken scratch, the words in books have meaning.  Finally, Cal knows “what’s truly there.”

I love the rhythm of this story, the dialect, the way in which a small piece of our country’s history – the pack horse librarians – is revealed in the particulars of Cal’s journey from non-reader to reader.

When I read a book which uses language so richly, I immediately want to know more about the author. What is it about the author and/or her background that brought her to tell this particular story?  Has she written anything else?

Not surprisingly, yes, she has.  Among other things, she’s written another lovely picture book I read a while back: Angel Coming.

Check out here for information on That Book Woman’s recent Christopher Award win.

Learn more about Henson on her website.