Each year the librarians at the Orem Library pick one book to read as a community. This fall, we’ve traveled to the Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina for The Ballad of Frankie Silver by Sharyn McCrumb. Click here to learn more about Orem Reads and to find out how you can receive your free copy of the The Ballad of Frankie Silver. To accompany the chosen novel this year, we’ve found 5 of our favorite children’s books set in Appalachia.
When I was Young in the Mountains
By Cynthia Rylant
Picture Book
For twenty years, Cynthia Rylant’s story of childhood in the Appalachian Mountains has been an enduring favorite. Growing up in the mountains is depicted with a spare, lyrical text and beautiful, tender illustrations by Diane Goode. The book was awarded a Caldecott Honor Medal.
Books by Horseback : A Librarian’s Brave Journey to Deliver Books to Children
By Emma Carlson Berne
Picture Book
A young librarian rides a pack horse through the mountains to deliver books to children in Appalachia during the Great Depression.
The Rag Coat
By Lauren Mills
Picture Book
Minna proudly wears her new coat made of clothing scraps to school, where the other children laugh at her until she tells them the stories behind the scraps.
Navigating Early
By Clare Vanderpool
Junior Fiction
Two boys undertake an incredible quest on the Appalachian Trail where they deal with pirates, buried secrets, and extraordinary encounters.
Willa of the Wood
By Robert Beatty
Junior Fiction
In the late 1800s, a twelve-year-old nightspirit living in the Great Smoky Mountains despairs as homesteaders destroy her forest habitat, until a chance encounter with a “day-folk” man changes everything she thought she knew about her people–and their greatest enemy.
