Alia Muhammad Baker is a librarian in Basra, Iraq. For fourteen years, the library where she works has been a meeting place for those who love books. Until now. Now war has come, and Alia fears that the library--along with the thirty thousand books within it--will be destroyed forever. In a war-stricken country where civilians--especially women--have little power, this true story about a librarian's struggle to save her community's priceless collection of books reminds us all how, throughout the world, the love of literature and the respect for knowledge know no boundaries
Analysis
juvenile Nonfiction
Notes
Premier's Reading Challenge (PRC), 3-5
640 Lexile
Audience
Elementary Grade
Notes
Accelerated Reader 3.2
Reading Counts! 3.4
Amelia Bloomer Award, 2006
Middle East Book Award Honor, 2005
Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People, 2006