(3) 4-6 True Stories, Real People series. Each short, inspiring biography is divided into four or five chapters written in an objective, unpretentious manner. Quotation sources are fastidiously footnoted and listed in the back matter. Navigation is easy thanks to clean layouts and a simple color scheme (orange photo captions, navy call-out boxes). Great for school assignments and engaging enough for pleasure reading. Reading list. Glos., ind. Review covers the following True Stories, Real People titles: Alia Muhammad Baker, Aron Ralston, Malala Yousafzai, Abby Sunderland, and Bethany Hamilton.

Reviewer: Amy Seto Forrester

(2) K-3 Winter's picture book describes Alia Muhammad Baker's attempt to save her library's collection when war comes to the Iraqi city of Basra in 2003. The illustrations represent the terrors of war realistically but not graphically. This tale provides a good way to talk about war and demonstrates the quiet heroism of fighting for something important without using violence.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2005

(2) K-3 The action in Stamaty's black ink drawings is immediate and exciting as graphic-novel panels tell about the 2003 rescue of an Iraqi library's books in the midst of the war. A talking book character provides background and narrates the story, describing librarian Alia Baker as a "real-life superhero." Information about the history of libraries in the Middle East is appended.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2005