"Books are for rich people. Farm people like us do not have time to read," Clara's father tells her at the beginning of the 20th century. The free library in a nearby Maryland village is thus off-limits to the curious child, but Clara's chance encounter with librarian Mary Titcomb and the first horse-drawn "moving library" changes her father's response. A glimpse of childhood without schools, libraries, literacy and books is presented in easy-to-read historical fiction. (Ages 5-9)