Both books -- '' The Librarian of Basra : A True Story From Iraq '' by Jeanette Winter -LRB- Harcourt -RRB- , for children in the lower grades , and '' Alia 's Mission : Saving the Books of Iraq , '' , a graphic-novel account by Mark Alan Stamaty -LRB- Knopf -RRB- for the middle grades and junior high schools -- were inspired by a July 2003 report of the rescue by Shaila K. Dewan of The New York Times .