What do You think about Part Of Me: Stories Of A Louisiana Family (2006)?
This book is very moving and well-written. It is a book that spans several generations of a family and is worth the investment of time. I am not familiar with this section of Louisiana, but Holt's writing truly gave me a sense of place. The aspects of a character becoming a bookmobile driver and that arc over time affected me as a librarian. The interactions between animals and people were insightful. Each new generation had fully-realized characters, and the transition from one generation to the next were seamlessly handled. It has themes of writing, family, love found and lost, and aging. I was sad to see this book end, and found it to be a moving experience. My library put it in the Teen section, but its appeal crosses that arbitrary boundary.
—Louis
Sweet read. 1939 Rose, 14, gets her first job driving a Bookmobile in Louisiana. She just moved from Texas to Louisiana to live with her grandfather, who her family has never met. I loved the progression with all family memebers. You next read about Rose's son, Merle Henry, 2 decades later. Then Merle Henry's daughter, Annabeth. Finally, Annabeth's son, Kyle. All family members share either their love or hate of reading. Kyle hates to read but finds a summer job at the library where he eventually loves reading his Harry Potter books. Sweet read. Loved the ending with Rose traveling the country sharing her story in a Bookmobile!
—Mrs. Tongate
This is the story of four generations of a family in Louisiana, all tied together by the local bookmobile and library. This format, starting with the oldest generation and working up to the newest, kept me reading, as I wanted to know more in succeeding chapters about characters I was reading about as children. Some stories gave hints of what would happen to people in the future; others didn't. I like the way books influence the various characters in the stories. The final chapter brought it back home to the first generation--most satisfying. This may be my favorite of all of Holt's books.
—Krista the Krazy Kataloguer
