Heroic Iraqi librarian, burned library subject of Am. children's books

[DeepModem Mom]

New York Times
Iraqi Librarian Becomes Cultural Hero in 2 Children's Books
By EDEN ROSS LIPSON
Published: March 17, 2005


Naum Kazhdan/The New York Times
In scenes from Jeanette Winter's "Librarian of Basra," rescuers carry books to safety in curtains torn from the imperiled Central Library.

It is hard to imagine how startled Alia Muhammad Baker, the chief librarian of Basra, Iraq, has been to discover that she is the hero of two American children's books. Ms. Baker, who rescued 30,000 books just days before the city's main library was burned during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, has sent e-mail messages recently to thank the authors for "showing us Iraqis as an educated people" and says she was surprised but also happy that the books "describe the truth."

Both books - "The Librarian of Basra: A True Story From Iraq" by Jeanette Winter (Harcourt), for children in the lower grades, and "Alia's Mission: Saving the Books of Iraq,", a graphic-novel account by Mark Alan Stamaty (Knopf) for the middle grades and junior high schools - were inspired by a July 2003 report of the rescue by Shaila K. Dewan of The New York Times....

***

The newspaper article told of Ms. Baker, a 50-year-old librarian, who saw government officials using the Central Library in Basra as offices for war preparations, making the building vulnerable to attack. She began quietly removing books. After British forces entered the city and the officials fled, the library was left undefended. With the help of workers from the Hamdan restaurant next door, she, along with shopkeepers, friends, neighbors and co-workers, managed to save 70 percent of the collection. The library mysteriously burned a few days later and Ms. Baker subsequently had a stroke....

***

In her e-mail messages, which were shared with a reporter, Ms. Baker expressed her delight with the international response to the story and to the books, which were published recently. The publishers say sales have been robust, and the authors have held several joint interviews.

One of the books is soon to appear in the Middle East. Rights to "Alia's Mission" have been bought by an Egyptian publishing company, which plans to bring out an Arabic edition this spring, Random House said....

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/17/books/17libr.html

[China_cat]

1. But I'll bet they don't teach anything about Hypatia, do they?

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Would be a pretty harsh children's book --

but your point is an apt one.

[DustMolecule]

2. Thanks for posting! Really neat stories

I'm going to buy these for my children's school library (I just put one of them on hold at the bookstore - the other I have to order online) :-)