Alia’s Mission Saving the Books of Iraq By Mark Alan Stamaty

Graphic Novel
Alia’s Mission Saving the Books of Iraq By Mark Alan Stamaty
I’ve never read a graphic novel before. I have read comics in the newspaper but not in a book form. This genre was new to me, I liked it. I wasn’t sure if I would or not because usually I am not into a lot of science fiction or hero stuff but this was interesting to me because it was based on true events.
Alia’s Mission is about Alia, a librarian, who is a superhero but not an ordinary superhero. Alia is so concerned with her library being destroyed in the war and the government won’t do anything about it so she starts stealing books out of the library to save them. The whole town helps get the books out and that night the library went up in flames. They saved over 30,000 books in this brigade.
It is based off of a true story and is based in Basra, Iraq. It looks as though it is an older book, but was written in 2003. The pictures are done in pencil and there is no color. There is quite a bit of diversity and learning about other cultures in this story. It doesn’t adhere to our societies stereotypes which I liked. I didn’t know they were so much like us in America. It shows televisions, cars, and phones in the illustrations. These are not objects I would normally think about being common in the Middle East. I think this would be a good book for older elementary students.