The Camel Bookmobile
by Masha Hamilton (Goodreads author!)Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of this book.
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Read in July, 2007
Fiona Sweeney, the American librarian, in The Camel Bookmobile believes that books offer "vicarious tastes of infinite variety," and it is those vicarious tastes that she would like to bring to the plains of Africa with her. The author, Masha Hamilton, also does an excellent task of bringing some of those tastes to this single novel. The novel is told from the perspective of a number of different people: Scar Boy (a boy scarred by a hyena at the age of three); his father the drum make...more
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Read in March, 2007
Masha Hamilton's The Camel Bookmobile presents books as dreams, hopes. There's a lovely passage early on in the book where Fiona describes being able, by instinct, to find at that particular moment, the book she needed to read. And in a way, this kind of sensation explains bridging the gap between cultures, part superstition, but superstition leading to knowledge, without ever losing its mystery. And in the village of Mididima--you get a people both depending on and decrying their own supers...more
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Read in December, 2007
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Read in January, 2008
On the American Bookseller's Association Book Sense Picks of 2007. Sounds intriguing and I have been learning much about Africa because of my current debate topic.
This was a wonderful book. The main character is a librarian driven to provide books to the rural areas of Africa so she delivers them by camel. "Books can take us out of ourselves and make us larger. Even provide us with human connections we wouldn't otherwise have." It describes so eloquently the power that book...more
This was a wonderful book. The main character is a librarian driven to provide books to the rural areas of Africa so she delivers them by camel. "Books can take us out of ourselves and make us larger. Even provide us with human connections we wouldn't otherwise have." It describes so eloquently the power that book...more
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Read in September, 2007
I found this a really compelling read. The book alternates between characters’ points of view — Fiona, the citified Kenyan librarian, the educated teacher who has returned to the village, the young wife, the teenagers struggling to find their path to the future. Because of the alternating takes on the story, you really get how there is an untenable position here between embracing custom and tradition in a struggling community or pursuing modernity at the price of losing your self-identity. A...more
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This started off in an interesting way- a young woman feels compelled to do something meaningful with her life and so decides to bring reading to remote areaS of an African country. Books are transported via the eponymous camel and she is the only white person.The value she puts on books is not always understood or shared by the people she's bringing her library to.
I was drawn to the premise and I thought the story would be really good. Plus I had read good reviews. Also, the writing at the ...more
I was drawn to the premise and I thought the story would be really good. Plus I had read good reviews. Also, the writing at the ...more
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Was a bit disappointed with this, as had been really looking forward to reading it. Had seen a review in our local newspaper and it sounded interesting, but I found it to be easy to put down, maybe because the characters weren't well developed and didn't have lots of appeal. The story is basically that of Irish American librarian Fi Sweeney who sets off to Kenya to work for a charity taking books to nomadic tribes. She is driven by a need to 'do good' which I found unconvincing. All is going...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in December, 2007
Well, who would have thought that an entire novel could be written on the basis of not returning a library book. This is the novel about Fi Sweeney, a librarian from Brooklyn who sets off to Africa to begin the Camel Bookmobile. One of the tribes that the camel bookmobile visits is Mididima, where the members love and appreciate Ms. Sweeney and the books. It comes to be that one of the members Taban, also called "Scar Boy" after he was attacked by a hyena, has misplaced his books. ...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
High School/ Adults/ Librarians
"And then it lunged...Later he would hear how his father turned, killed the beast with a miraculously aimed knife, scooped his son into his arms, and began running, the child's blood weeping down the father's arms." (Hamilton 3).
Within the first chapter of THE CAMEL BOOKMOBILE you are enveloped in the story of Scar Boy and his tortured existence within the nomadic village of Mididima. Into this geography comes Fiona, a public librarian who is captivated by the idea that she can ma...more
Within the first chapter of THE CAMEL BOOKMOBILE you are enveloped in the story of Scar Boy and his tortured existence within the nomadic village of Mididima. Into this geography comes Fiona, a public librarian who is captivated by the idea that she can ma...more
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Read in August, 2008
recommends it for:
jamie and all teachers, fawn and all lovers of books
i truly enjoyed this book. i am an avid reader and always have been. i can relate to Fi in that she wants to take the books to the people. i can also relate to the people in Africa where this story takes place because of their desire to have books to read. this book has inspired me to help the real Camel Bookmobile in getting books to the people who want to read. i think reading is so important and can relate to the librarians and the teachers. this is a great book in that the authour pulle...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommended to Kristen by:
SLC Reader's Choice
I didn't realize that there really was/is a Camel Bookmobile that takes library books to remote African villages by camel-back and I found the issues surrounding it very interesting. The story is fiction, but the issues of loving books and wanting to share them with everyone and teaching literacy - and whether that is better or worse for the people and their way of life. Whether or not a village can survive and continue without any "modern" ways or thought. Whether we should step in...more
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
Barb and Sarah
An American librarian travels to Kenya to deliver books to remote settlements. It sounds like a wonderful idea, but Masha Hamilton makes you think not only about the advantages but the consequences of delivering books to people whose lives and traditions are so different from ours. The story is told from the viewpoints of several people - villagers, American librarian, Kenyan librarian. I would recommend it to anyone who thinks the world's problems have a simple solution and for those who lik...more
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Read in August, 2008
A story about a young librarian from New York who wants more out of life. She travels to Nairobi to be part of a camel bookmobile which brings books and literacy to remote villages in Africa. The book tells of the people in the village of Mididima, a village of huts that could be packed up and moved at any time. We read of love, hate and jealosy. The villagers are struggling with the effects of change and the influence on tradition that the white woman from a foreign land brings with each vis...more
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Whoa, did I try to read this. Well, I'm a librarian, and this was given to me as a gift by my mother-in-law. I love her much, and appreciated the gift, so I tried to read and enjoy this. It is an interesting book. I do think it's cool in showing the politics and culture in rural African communities. It's also cool to see the main character attempt to improve the lives of people by peace-corps-ing and spreading literacy, and learning that she's got to respect the culture, etc. But it was a ...more
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Read in February, 2008
I really like how this book changed my ideas somewhat of what it means to help poor African people. I think I've gained a little more respect for those people. I enjoyed Ms. Hamilton's style. It was very simple and easy. It did take me awhile to get through. I would categorize it as a drama-- at least movie-drama. Whenever I watch a "drama" I find that thought they're not always boring, they don't have the ups and downs as dramatically as anything else. It felt very real to life ...more
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Read in January, 2008
Thought this might be my dream job...traveling to Africa and bringing books to people on the back of a camel. I think I'll keep my day job. Descriptions of why the village elders didn't want books/reading to be brought into their communities frustrated me at first but then they started to make some sense. While I still think books should be part of every person's life, I can now acknowledge that books are not a cure for every problem and that literacy can have some negative effects. Never though...more
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Fiona Sweeney's a librarian from Brooklyn. She travels to Kenya to begin a program that delivers books, by camel, to a remote village where the oral tradition is valued above a written one. A young, disfigured teen called Scar Boy refuses to return his books forcing the entire village to a crossroads. The chapters sort of take turns between key characters, leading you into the mindset of a particular person and their attitude about books. The story reveals a lot as far as culture clash and W...more
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1 comments
The premise for this book was interesting: what happens when an American woman (a librarian) goes to Africa to work as part of a mobile library, bringing books by camel to a certain remote village?
For the most part this book is interesting - especially the dynamic between the American woman and the mysterious villagers.
In the end though, I was left disatisfied. Even though this is a work of fiction, the author left the reader feeling hopeless that the cultural divide between Western s...more
For the most part this book is interesting - especially the dynamic between the American woman and the mysterious villagers.
In the end though, I was left disatisfied. Even though this is a work of fiction, the author left the reader feeling hopeless that the cultural divide between Western s...more
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Read in July, 2008
An enjoyable fiction read. It felt a little out of Africa though, not referring to the movie/book, but the sense that accuracy might not be completely connected here and more made up. The writer did travel with the camel bookmobile though and it's a great cause. The book raises important questions of whether modernization is helping these tribes or taking away. It's an interesting one and you could conclude both here. Great story - the voice just doesn't read that of an African village expert bu...more
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Read in September, 2008
Maybe it's the setting and situation of when I read this book that made it so enjoyable. The setting of the book couldn't be so different from the cold days of the Black Forest in Germany... so are the approaches to family life and how everyone see things in general.
But despite all that, I think I would have enjoyed the story anyway in any settings and situation. The descriptions are vivid & the story is told in a way that can carry me away & made me relate to the characters, no matt...more
But despite all that, I think I would have enjoyed the story anyway in any settings and situation. The descriptions are vivid & the story is told in a way that can carry me away & made me relate to the characters, no matt...more
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