It’s a story filled with the stuff of timeless, revered children’s books: embarking on hazardous adventures on horseback, beating unfavorable odds to achieve an admirable goal, reaching out to those in need, demonstrating immeasurable bravery and resilience, and celebrating a love of reading. The remarkable achievements of the historic Kentucky Pack Horse Librarians, whose experiences embody all these endeavors, are heralded in four recent or upcoming picture books.
These are: Books by Horseback: A Librarian’s Brave Journey to Deliver Books to Children by Emma Carlson Berne, illustrated by Ilaria Urbinati (Little Bee Books, 2021); The Horseback Librarians by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Alexandra Badiu (Albert Whitman, 2023); Junia, The Book Mule of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson, illustrated by David C. Gardner (Sleeping Bear, Mar. 15, 2024); and Hope Rode by Lauren H. Kerstein, illustrated by Becca Stadtlander (Union Square Kids, spring 2025).
Each title introduces a fictional heroine inspired by the librarians who provided books, company, and comfort via horseback to families in remote regions of the Appalachian Mountains as part of the Pack Horse Library Project (1935–1943), an initiative of FDR’s Works Progress Administration. The books included here represent a sampling of a new wave of children’s books about these dedicated librarians.
Finding Common Ground
As they shared their inspirations for writing their respective books, it was evident that Berne, Yolen, Richardson, and Kerstein forged diverse creative paths, yet similar themes surfaced.
Each author was quick to note that she felt an instant connection to the Pack Horse Library Project when she first learned of it. For Berne and Richardson, a significant part of that bond was rooted in the story’s Kentucky roots.
Berne explained that her family was originally from West Virginia, which is located not far from the hazardous Eastern Kentucky terrain navigated by many of the “book women” on horseback, and shares an Appalachian culture. “I am also an avid, longtime equestrian and a lover of books and librarians,” she said. “When I heard a clip on NPR’s Kitchen Sisters about the Pack Horse Librarians, I thought, ‘This is crying out to be a book for me to write—it has all my interests rolled into one story!’ ”
Kentucky native Richardson is a passionate advocate of her home state as well as a champion of the legacy of the Pack Horse Librarians. Junia, The Book Mule of Troublesome Creek is a picture book adaptation of her adult novel, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek (Sourcebooks Landmark, 2019) which became a bestseller, was translated into more than 12 languages, and was a Common Read selection by a number of states, cities, and colleges across the country and abroad.
“I write for Kentucky first,” she said, adding, “I earmarked a lot of my earnings from The Book Woman for librarians and teachers in Kentucky.” During the pandemic, the author was inspired to launch bookmobiles, and eventually hopes to install Little Free Libraries in all Kentucky courthouses and to ensure that a historical marker or monument is created to commemorate the Pack Horse Librarians.
Inspiring Today’s Readers Through the Past
Yolen also had personal reasons to be moved by the history of the Kentucky book women when she read about them in a magazine article. “My writer brain immediately went, ‘That’s a picture book!’ ” she recalled. Busy at the time with multiple other book projects, Yolen waited some time to act on her inspiration.
The article again caught her attention when she uncovered it while clearing her desk one day—which happened to be the anniversary of her late husband’s birthday. “He had been born and brought up in a small West Virginia town,” Yolen said. “He had been a university professor, two of his three brothers were educators, his mother was a teacher, and his father had been a superintendent of schools. It seemed I was being called to write the story.”
Kerstein was originally inspired to write Hope Rode because she was “astonished and amazed by the incredible women who participated in the Pack Horse Library Project, which she learned about in Jojo Moyes’s The Giver Of Stars and became even more impressed by their accomplishments as she researched their story for the picture book she felt compelled to write Kerstein said that the scope of her book, which went through many revisions (including eight after it was under contract with Union Square Kids), expanded from “the story of one woman’s journey, to become an ode to the pack horse librarians, their resilience, and the nurturing role they played, through books and interacting with kids.”
Looking back at the making of her book, Kerstein concluded, “What emerges is the complexity of the phenomenon of the Pack Horse Library Project and its many layers—from its historical significance to its social-emotional learning component, to the story of the remarkable strength and resilience of people during hard times. My hope is these books will raise kids’ awareness and appreciation of this program and that they will look at their own librarians and their book-filled libraries in awe and with gratitude.”
Yolen also underscores the relevance of this Depression-Era program to contemporary young readers. “When teachers are being second-guessed by parents and groups of book haters, and books are being banned for telling uncomfortable truths, I think books that show how far students and teachers and librarians went to read books in our past is important.”
Books by Horseback: A Librarian’s Brave Journey to Deliver Books to Children by Emma Carlson Berne, illus. by Ilaria Urbinati. Little Bee, $17.99, 2021 ISBN 978-1-4998-1173-5
Hope Rode by Lauren H. Kerstein, illustrated by Becca Stadtlander. Union Square Kids, $18.99, June 17 2025 ISBN 978-1-4549-4848-3.
The Horseback Librarians by Jane Yolen, illus. by Alexandra Badiu. Albert Whitman, $18.99, June 22 ISBN 978-0-8075-6291-8
Junia, The Book Mule of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson, illus. by David C. Gardner. Sleeping Bear, $18.99, Mar. ISBN 978-1-5341-1303-9
