Eight Mules from Monterey

Eight Mules from Monterey by Patricia Beatty is a charming story about a lady librarian and her two children. A widow and recent graduate of library school is given the job to set-up rural outposts or library branches in the rural hill country of California in 1916. The journey requires travel by mule over difficult terrain. Her two children accompany her on the trip. Along the way, the family encounters interesting and sometimes dangerous individuals.

The story is charming and doesn't take much time to read. Unfortunately neither the title or cover art is particularly enticing to the modern young adult reader. I'm not sure the story will interest many either. I liked the story, although there were a few word choices that made me pause. This story is written at for a younger teen and is fairly clean compared to a lot of the trash published today.

Book Rating: 3 stars