Drawing on first-hand experiences from six years of professional work as a librarian in high-poverty neighborhoods of Washington, DC, as well as interviews and research, the author highlights the national problems that have existed in libraries since theywere founded-racism, segregation and class inequalities.

At first glance, Josh Hanagarne seems an improbable librarian. He stands 6'7", competes in strongman contests, and was diagnosed in high school with Tourette's syndrome. But books are his first love-Josh's earliest memories involve fantastic adventures between the pages of Gulliver's Travels and a passionate infatuation with Fern from Charlotte's Web. Everything in Josh's life-from his Mormon upbringing, to finally finding love, to learning to control...

"After amassing piles of books, Luis, a voracious reader, dreams up a way to share his collection with 'faraway villages.' He starts with two burros--one for himself, one for books--and heads off. Tough terrain and menacing bandits challenge him along the way, but at last he reaches a remote town, where he holds a story hour and loans titles to eager kids before returning home to his wife and reading late into the night."--Amazon.com

Describes the life and accomplishments of Pura Belpré, a Puerto Rican librarian who introduced the folk tales of her native island first to the children of New York and afterwards throughout the country.

Books were the one constant in a life full of trauma and turmoil, and she always turned to them for reassurance, renewal, and solace when she had no one and nothing else...Above all, this book is a tribute to a teenage girl who understood the power of forbidden books: that by reading them she would find a way to liberate herself. She devoted the rest of her long life to liberating them for the readers of the world. That includes you.