The Camel Bookmobile

Carol Fitzgerald, founder of BookReporter.com and ReadingGroupGuides.com, wrote the following in her introduction for this month's Reading Group Guides' newsletter and I thought I'd share it with ya'll here.

Last week I spent some time at the American Library Association Convention in Anaheim, which was a wonderful celebration of books and reading. Librarians are wildly enthusiastic about books and authors --- and they ask smart questions and provoke thoughtful replies when they are at panels and speeches.

I also got to catch up with Masha Hamilton, whose book The Camel Bookmobile has been enjoyed by many groups. She blogged for us about the real-life inspiration for the novel and how book groups in the U.S. have given people in Kenya the gift of the written word, which you can read here. As many of you know this novel is based on the actual camel bookmobiles --- camels carrying books, which is an image that I love. While we were chatting Masha shared that the book-toting camels cost $350, and readers have purchased camels, some in the name of their loved ones, as a tribute. I love this idea. We just may need a Bookreporter.com or ReadingGroupGuides.com camel! On her blog we have a link so you can get involved.

The first link is to a Book Reporter bio of Masha Hamilton with an interview with her and the second link is to Masha Hamilton's website for The Camel Bookmobile.