The Camel Bookmobile

The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton is a lovely story about an American woman, Fi, who goes to Africa to help with a travelling library that goes by camel train to remote villages to bring books and literacy. Fi becomes intrigued by a particular village and its characters when she discovers that a disfigured teenage boy refuses to return his books. She learns the reasons for that and at the same time learns more about the culture of the village. Some of the elders see the travelling library as an unwanted intrusion into their culture, so there is a clash of the culture as the villagers are exposed to a "better" life and there is a fear they will reject their own culture. So here is a intriguing philosophical debate about the worth of the library. 4/5