My Librarian is a Camel - by Margriet Ruurs

I like to do special posts for National Bookmobile Day. I haven't been to a bookmobile in a long time, but I have such fond memories of going to the Baltimore County Public Library bookmobile when I was young. Although we often went to the branch library in Catonsville, I was always enchanted by the library bus.

Ruurs' book takes readers on a journey around the world, to 13 countries on six continents, where library services are delivered in unexpected ways. From libraries on wheels (including a wheelbarrow on at the Blackpool beach in England) and boats, horses, elephants, and (of course) camels the book demonstrates a universal love of books and reading. As explained by a the librarian in the blue truck library in Azerbaijan "the mobile library is as important as air or water." Or, as a young patron of the Storyteller bus in Pakistan enthuses "This bus is magic!"

Volunteers from Hope Worldwide may get the prize for toughest book delivery

They begin their journey in a four-by-four truck, on a road cut into the steep hillside. After a long bumpy ride they eventually come to a village called Mogi-agi, which means "up-and-down road,"...but the volunteers aren't done yet. They still have to reach a further destination deeper into the jungle: the village of Amia. They ford a river in their truck and drive until they can go no farther. Then they unload the boxes of books to take them to the small villages in the highlands. From there they must walk for four hours, up the pass and over several ridges, crossing log bridges while carrying the boxes of books on their shoulders.

They are rewarded when they reach Amia and "young people come running to meet them...[who] gratefully read their books and look forward to the next supply!"