Book Review: Library on Wheels by Sharlee Mullins Glenn

Library on Wheels: Mary Lemist Titcomb and America’s First Bookmobile
by Sharlee Mullins Glenn [j Biography Titcomb]

I’ve heard various stories over the years of what the very first Bookmobile in the United States was, but had never seen any of those stories codified into book form until seeing this lovely little gem of a juvenile biography recently.

This marvelous book is both a biography of Mary Lemist Titcomb, and a chronicle of the history of her development of a mobile library. This volume is not told in purely traditional book form, but instead is a collection of artifacts — ticket stubs, program itineraries, newspaper articles, personal diaries, and much more. Some are reproductions of actual documents and some are stylistic recreations. They all combine to make an absolutely fascinating read.

Though this book is classified as a juvenile biography, I found it a compelling read as an adult, and recommend this for anyone interested in library history, bookmobile history, and the lives of significant women in American history.

[ publisher’s official Library on Wheels web site ] | [ official Sharlee Glenn web site ] 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!