Amid the devastation of World War I in northern France, a group of mostly American women helped villagers displaced by the fighting.
Based on a true story, The Librarians of Rue Picardie by a US writer has at its heart the beneficial effects of books and libraries. It follows the life of Jessie Carson, a New York children’s librarian, who goes to work for the American Committee for a Devastated France. In French, that is Le Comité Américain pour les Régions Dévastées (CARD), with its members termed ‘Cards’.
Millionaire Anne Morgan founded it, and with fundraising in Canada and the US, an international group of women went to France to help rebuild devastated communities close to the frontlines.
Charles’ research into those volunteers (and a few paid staff, including Jessie Carson) allowed her to flesh out the story of what they did in France towards the end of World War I and for some years afterwards.
Carson’s job was to establish a children’s library for the youngsters in the village of Blérancourt, as well as their parents. Those people were living in makeshift houses, dug-outs in a quarry and even in what was called the Red Zone, so badly damaged and sown with explosives that it was deemed uninhabitable. It was truly shocking to read in Charles’ notes that the Red Zone, more than one million square kilometres, is still uninhabitable.
How Carson establishes story time for the devastated children, makes mobile libraries from ambulances, trains librarians and goes on to change the way French libraries operate makes riveting reading.
Sadly, once she returns to the US, she disappears into obscurity, dying in 1959 aged 83.
Reviewed by Jennifer Somerville
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Janet Skeslien Charles is an award-winning author with over a decade’s worth of roaming the streets of Paris and researching in its libraries. Her debut novel, Moonlight in Odessa, was published in 10 languages and was awarded the Melissa Nathan prize and the Completement Livre prize in Strasbourg.
Originally from Montana, as a child she lived on the same street as a French war bride and was fascinated by the war stories of her French professor. Janet began to research The Paris Library when she worked as Programs Manager at the American Library in Paris. Until recently she taught in Paris, where she still lives.
Visit Janet Skeslien Charles website
https://www.jskesliencharles.com/
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