4/15-4/19

To celebrate National Library Week, (April 8 – 12) we are reading The Librarian of Basra, by Jeanette Winter.  This is the fascinating story of Alia Muhammad Baker, chief librarian of  the Central Library in Basra, a coastal city in Iraq.  The Iraqi invasion reached Basra on April 6, 2003, but with the help of friends and neighbors, Alia managed to rescue 70% of the library’s collection before  it burned to the ground 9 days later.  The collection included a biography of Muhammad that is 700 years old!  Alia’s story was first reported in the New York Times on July 27, 2003, where it garnered much attention and eventually inspired this picture book.