Author info:
Harcourt, Inc. "Interview with Jeanette Winter." 4/21/2008
The Librarian of Basra is the true story of Alia Muhammad Baker, a female librarian in Basra, Iraq. Author and illustrator Jeanette Winter wrote this story after reading an article about it in the New York Times. Although not an Arab insider, Winter informed herself about Iraq through research and doing things such as listening to Middle Eastern music while she worked.
The story tells of how Alia Baker saved about seventy percent of the books in the library in Basra after attacks in this Iraqi city. Her love for books and lack of help from government officials caused this brave librarian to transport the books to safety. With the help of some friends, she transferred books from the library to her home, friend’s homes and a friend’s restaurant in order to protect them from being destroyed from attacks in the current war in Iraq. Although the library burns down, most of the books are saved! This is a modern story, and the illustrations represent this. Although they could possibly be interpretted as disturbing by some due to pictures of buildings on fire and bombs, the pictures show the reality that buildings are constantly being destroyed in this war.
Although it does not give too much insight into the Arab culture, this is still an excellent piece of diverse literature as it shows the strength and bravery of an Arab woman. Arab women, especially Muslim women are often stereotype and treated as weak and powerless, but Alia Baker proves this wrong. The story also gives the sad but true depiction of some of the things that are being destroyed in Iraq as a result of the war. This book shows the strengh of an Arabic woman and can be inspiring to women and men of all ages.
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