As the city of Basra was bombed by night (left), Iraqi librarian
Alia Muhammad Baker was busy driving library books to her home
to protect them (right). Author/illustrator Jeanette Winter drew
images of what she imagined such scenes must have looked like to
illustrate her book 'The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq."
The tale of the Iraqi librarian who saved the books she loves
By Karen Campbell . Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Of all the children's books about the good one person can do, few are
more timely or resonant than Jeanette Winter's "The Librarian of
Basra: A True Story from Iraq."
The true account of an Iraqi librarian's brave struggle to save her
community's priceless collection of books dramatically illustrates
the difference one person can make. And in a moving parallel, the
author is now leaving her own indelible footprints at the point
where the story ends.
The book was inspired by a July 2003, article in The New York Times
about Alia Muhammad Baker, the chief librarian of Basra's Central
Library, who was determined to protect the library's holdings when
US troops entered Iraq and fighting and looting broke out.
When her own government refused to help, Ms. Baker began spiriting
the collection to safety herself, book by book. She carried the books to
her home and to a neighboring restaurant, managing with the help of
friends to preserve 70 percent of the collection before the historic
building burned to the ground nine days later.
In the article, Baker remarked "In the Koran, the first thing God said
to Muhammad was 'Read.' " Winter, who has written biographies for
children, was hooked. "What Alia realized was that without books, you
lose history, culture, the rich exchange of ideas," she says.
