Alia Muhammad Baker is a hero and she is a librarian. She does not wear a superwoman costume or a powerful cape but she did a very brave and very powerful thing: she saved seventy per cent of the books in the library of Basra when the war came to that port city in Iraq.
In 2003 when the war came to Basra, Alia, the librarian feared that the books in the library would be destroyed. Her collection is filled with books in many, many languages and includes a "biography of Muhammad that is seven hundred years old."
When the bombs began to fall from the sky, Alia began to move the books out of the library. She got help from her friends and neighbors and they moved the books into a restaurant that belonged to her friend. They moved the books again to the homes of her friends. Soon after the books were moved, the library exploded in a bomb and burned. The war waged on and Alia dreamed of peace. She also dreams of a new library. Her courage and her determination saved the great treasure of the books of the library of Basra.
32 pages 978-0152054458 Ages 5-9
Recommended by: Barb Langridge, abookandahug.com