Characters & People
The brave chief librarian who risks everything to save the city's books.
Who is Alia Muhammad Baker?
The Middle Eastern country where this true story takes place.
What is Iraq?
Alia initially takes books home every evening hidden inside this everyday accessory.
What is her car/vehicle (or shawl/bags)?
The total estimated number of books saved from destruction
What is 30,000?
The core theme represented by Alia’s determination that knowledge and heritage must be protected during wartime.
What is the preservation of history/culture/literature?
The restaurant owner next door who helps Alia hide books in his dining room.
Who is Anis Muhammad?
The port city located in southern Iraq where Alia's library is situated.
What is Basra?
What was used to carry large loads of books over the wall into the restaurant.
What are burlap/flour sacks (or curtains/crates)?
Soldiers set up this defensive weapon on top of the library roof, putting the building in extreme danger.
What is an anti-aircraft gun?
The color palette Jeanette Winter uses to shift the visual mood from peace to wartime chaos.
What are warm/vibrant colors shifting to fiery reds dark smoke and mutes tones?
Alia asks this local government official for permission to move the books, but he refuses.
Who is the governor?
The international conflict that serves as the backdrop for the book's events.
What is the Iraq War (2003)
The total percentage of the library's collection that Alia and her helpers manage to save.
What is 70%?
The medical emergency Alia suffers shortly after securing the books due to intense stress and exhaustion.
What is a stroke?
Complete the quote/sentiment: "In the Koran, the first word revealed to the Prophet Muhammad was..."
What is "Read" (Iqra)?
The author and illustrator who wrote The Librarian of Basra.
Who is Jeanette Winter?
The gathering place in Basra where scholars, students, and readers met before the war.
What is the Central Library of Basra?
The disaster that completely destroys the library building nine days after the books are evacuated.
What is a fire?
A rare, 700-year-old biography of this historical figure was among the most precious items Alia rescued.
Who is Prophet Muhammad?
The unifying force that brings shopkeepers, neighbors, and strangers together despite political danger.
What is community solidarity / love of their city's books?
The group of people who formed a human chain to carry the books over the library wall.
Who are the neighbors/helpers of Basra?
The physical feature next to the library over which Alia and Anis pass boxes and armfuls of books.
What is the seven-foot wall?
Where the books are eventually transported by truck for safer keeping after the restaurant fills up.
What are the homes of Alia, her friends and safe houses across Basra?
Alia's ultimate dream and concluding goal at the end of the book.
What is rebuilding the Central Library of Basra?
Alia exhibited this by defying bureaucratic denial and acting on her own conscience.
What is moral / civic courage?