Books By Burro!Waiting for the Biblioburro by Monica Brown

ON A HILL BEHIND A TREE THERE IS A HOUSE. IN THAT HOUSE THERE IS A LITTLE GIRL NAMED ANA.

Every day Ana gets up and helps her family with the chores--bathing her baby brother, feeding the goats and collecting the eggs the hens have laid to sell in the village market. But all the while Ana wishes she were back in her cool house reading her libro, her book. She only has one, given to her by her teacher in the village school, the school that is now closed. Ana loves her book and reads it to her brother, but she wishes she could have a new one to read.

But then one day she hears the tacatac of hooves coming up the hill. Riding a burro is a man leading two more, equipped, not with saddles, but with bookshelves filled with libros. The man says he is a bibliotecaro, a librarian, bringing books to the children in the area. He reads a cuento, a story, to her and her little brother, and both of them get to choose some books from the biblioburros, Alfa and Beto

SO MANY CUENTOS!

SOMEONE SHOULD WRITE A BOOK ABOUT YOUR BURROS," SHE TELLS THE LIBRARIAN.

"WHY DON'T YOU?" HE ASKED.

Ana reads all her books and then reads them all again and again. She teaches her little brother his alfabetos, too. And when she's done, she gets out her paper and colored pencils and writes her own book of stories. But when will the biblioburros come back?

Ana begins to believe they are not ever coming, but then....

THE BIBLIOBURRO MAN IS BACK!

And he is happy to read Ana's story to all the children, in Monica Brown's tribute to Colombia's biblioburro librarian, Luis Soriano Bohorquez, in Waiting for the Biblioburro (Tricycle Press). Youngsters used to frequent forays to their public libraries and bookstores will be amazed to learn that a donkey loaded with books can be a library and will be intrigued with the idea of choosing books off the back of donkeys. This book is perfect for Library Week observances, and kids will be surprised to learn of checking out books from boats on rivers and harbors and of books for kids brought on the backs of camels. This is also a good time to learn about libraries on horseback or borne by mules and wagons here in the last century and still delivered by bookmobiles in the countryside or in big city neighborhoods.

Share this one along with Heather Hensen's and David Small's That Book Woman and Maggie Ruurs' My Librarian is a Camel: How Books Are Brought to Children Around the World.