The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton

How did it take me so long to get around to reading a book about a librarian in Africa!? Fiona leaves the security of her life in NYC to have do something "real". She accepts a job as a librarian in Kenya and finds herself delivering books by camel to the wandering tribes of northeast Kenya. The elders of the village possess the wisdom that has allowed them to survive for centuries and the young people possess the desire for a window to the world beyond their piece of arid bush. The question of what to do with knowledge one wishes to share is tricky at best and the roles of teacher and learner are almost never clear. Connected in this struggle are a young boy horribly disfigured by a hyena attack with a gift for recording his view of the world but no paper to write on, a teacher who as been to the big city and returned with information his village does not always wish to hear, and a young girl whose hope for a different future is weighted down with responsibilities of the past. Hamilton actually travelled with the real camel bookmobile and her experiences make the story all the more believable. This is one of my new favorites.