An outcast due to her unique blue-tinted skin, Cussy Mary Carter works as a Pack Horse Librarian for President Roosevelt's WPA project in rural Kentucky. Her patrons live in dire poverty, with few schools, no libraries, and often-impassable roads. Traveling from homestead to homestead, Cussy's portable library of books, magazines, and newspapers brings her patrons a glimpse of the outside world, and, for some, a much-needed connection with another human being. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is a story of a courageous and indomitable young woman who not only braves the physical dangers of her route but also the prejudices of the town folk, all for her fierce love of sharing books with her people. Inspired by the real "book women" and blue-skinned people of the Eastern Kentucky hills, this historical novel reveals how books can bring light and hope to even the most impoverished souls.

A Reader Review by Colleen Bente of Oak Forest, Illinois