The Librarian of Basra

February has been set aside as Library Lovers Month to celebrate school, public, and private libraries of all types. In my case, without libraries this website would not exist. My early exposure to a variety of books came at a small school library in Village Elementary School in Fort Wayne, Indiana. An enormous amount of the research for this project takes place at the Westwood (MA) Public Library with a children’s staff directed by Loretta Eysie. Not only do I pick up hundreds of interlibrary loan books there, but the staff is also always helping me with questions. Recently they had a lot of suggestions about Tooth Fairy books—and you’ll see the results later this month. In my community, and in the United States, libraries circulate materials to every citizen that once might have been only available to the wealthy.

In 2005 Jeanette Winter both wrote and illustrated a book that has made its readers look at libraries in a slightly different way, The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq. The book opens with a line from Alia Muhammad Baker: “In the Koran, the first thing God said to Muhammad was ‘Read.’” Alia is the librarian of Basra in Iraq. She worries the fires of war will destroy her collection; without government approval, she begins bringing home books every night. When war finally comes and the city is engulfed in flames, Alia, with the help of the citizens of the town, removes the remaining books from the library and hides them in a restaurant. After the fighting stops, she transports thirty thousand volumes to her house and the homes of friends. She waits, dreams of peace, and of a new library. “But until then, the books are safe—safe with the librarian of Basra.”

The Westwood Public Library will be moving to glorious new headquarters, probably in the summer of 2012. Volumes from one library will go to another, without fires or raging wars. The Librarian of Basra reminds both children ages four through eight and adults just how lucky we are to have safe libraries at our disposal. We are also fortunate to have people like Alia, librarians who care passionately about books.

I hope everyone will use Library Lovers Month to thank those who, every day, protect our treasures, our books. If you love libraries, you also love the unsung heroes and heroines in this country and Iraq—librarians.

Here’s a page from The Librarian of Basra: