Nonfiction That Makes the Grade: Iraq (Countries of the World) by Charlie Samuels

In his foreword to National Geographic Countries of the World: Iraq (NG Countries of the World), Shakir Mustafa gives credit to the land which gave us the first system of writing, code of law, and even the first cookbook. In contrast, author Charlie Samuels aptly terms Iraq a country "living on the edge," pointing to the long succession of empires--the Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Persian, and British--which have flowed over this land, destroying and creating new cultures--with new forms of writing, new laws, and, indeed, new foods--for millennia.

On the boundary between a fruitless, sparsely inhabited desert and the fertile Mesopotamian cradle of civilization, constantly divided and redivided by rulers from Sargon of Sumeria to the British Empire to Saddam Hussein, torn between the Arab and Persian hegemonies for centuries, Iraq is still a country on the edge. It is a land where ancient ties of family, clan, and tribe still widely encourage cousin marriage as a means of preserving wealth and social control and yet finds itself awash in new international ideologies--Islamicism, Al Quaida, and modernism. Within this theme, Samuels does a good job of summarizing the geography, ancient and modern history, and politics of the people within Iraq's man-made borders.

Special attention is given to the need to protect Iraq's fragile natural environment, from the forests of the northern mountains to the Arab marshes in the south. Concern is also expressed for the need for preservation of Iraq's historic sites and artifacts, from ancient city ruins of Babylon to the ziggurats and mosques which dot the landscape. Samuels provides a succinct discussion of Iraq's recent modern history since World War II, which although brief, provides more information than most American adults share. His chapter, "Traditions and Troubles," explains the challenges to nationhood which currently face Iraq. As Samuels says in his closing,

Their country has undergone many changes over the centuries. The Iraqi people have always proved resourceful at coping with change. When the final troops leave Iraq, a new generation of Iraqis will be set to make the most of whatever new situation faces them.

Illustrative photos, maps, graphs, and tables dot the chapters and extend the text, and extensive backmatter adds a glossary, an appendix which steers the student through report-writing with extensive source web sites, a bibliography, and an index. In addition to timelines distributed through the individual chapters, a complete chronology of Iraqi history is provided in the endpapers.

Other titles in National Geographic's Countries of the World series are National Geographic Countries of the World: Iran (NG Countries of the World), National Geographic Countries of the World: Kenya, (Countries of the World), National Geographic Countries of the World: India,(Countries of the World) National Geographic Countries of the World: Cuba, (NG Countries of the World) National Geographic Countries of the World: Peru, (Countries of the World) National Geographic Countries of the World: South Africa, (NG Countries of the World) National Geographic Countries of the World: Italy, (Countries of the World) National Geographic Countries of the World: United Kingdom, (Countries of the World) National Geographic Countries of the World: Nigeria, (Countries of the World) National Geographic Countries of the World:Poland, (NG Countries of the World) National Geographic Countries of the World: Australia (NG Countries of the World) National Geographic Countries of the World: Germany, (NG Countries of the World) National Geographic Countries of the World: South Korea, (Countries of the World) National Geographic Countries of the World: China. (Countries of the World) National Geographic Countries of the World: Afghanistan,(Countries of the World) National Geographic Countries of the World: Vietnam, (NG Countries of the World) National Geographic Countries of the World: Canada, (Countries of the World) National Geographic Countries of the World: Mexico, (Countries of the World) National Geographic Countries of the World: Japan, (Countries of the World) National Geographic Countries of the World: Egypt, (Countries of the World) National Geographic Countries of the World: Israel, (Countries of the World) National Geographic Countries of the World: Russia, (Countries of the World) and National Geographic Countries of the World: New Zealand. (Countries of the World)

Superhero of the Stacks: The Librarian of Basra: A True Story of Iraq by Jeanette Winters

"In the Koran, the first thing God said to Muhammed was 'READ.'"

As the threat of war drew near in the early spring of 2003, Alia Muhammed Baker, chief librarian of the Central Library of Basra, knew that her library, which held modern books and ancient manuscripts, including a 700-year old biography of Muhammed, was under a grave threat of destruction by the bombing and the fires sure to follow. Permission to move the books to a safe place was denied by Iraqi officials, and Alia knew that she was on her own in protecting her precious store of knowledge.

As the destruction of the initial "shock and awe" attacks began, her staff fled the city. Alia turned to her library's neighbor, Anis, whose restaurant was just on the other side of the wall surrounding the library. With his help over 30,000 books were passed over the wall and hidden inside the well-known restaurant, safe from the soldiers and from the looters who followed. Much of the library was moved before the building was completely destroyed nine days later.

Fearing that Anis' restaurant would meet the same fate, Alia hired a truck to move the books, bit by bit, to her own and others' houses in the suburbs.

In Alia's house books are everywhere, filling floors and cupboards and windowsills. Alia waits. She waits for war to end. She waits and dreams of peace. She waits ...and dreams of a new library, but until then, the books are safe, safe with the librarian of Basra.

While Winters' folkloric acrylic illustrations and soothing deep blue borders soften this account of war for younger readers, the terror of the attack, with warplanes in the sky and tanks in the street, is symbolically evoked by the orange and red hues of the sky over Alia's library as the invasion advances. Still the war is background to the central story of this brave woman, for whom books are "more precious than mountains of gold." Alia's courage and resourcefulness in spiriting her collection into safe haven in her home and those of her friends is the real matter of this story. Leaders, good and bad, and wars, just and unjust, come and go in human history, but Alia's belief is that libraries are the custodians of civilization and must be preserved for the future at all cost.

The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq is aimed at school-aged readers. For older readers, Mark Allen Stamaty's graphic novel, Alia's Mission: Saving the Books of Iraq, tells the same story in greater detail with a bit more realistic impact.