As a child, Osnat Barzani persuaded her rabbi father to teach her to read Hebrew and study Torah. A Kurdish Jew born in 1590 in Mosul, Iraq, Osnat’s scholarly skills and interests were unusual for a girl of her time. As an adult, she married a man named Jacob on the condition that he excuse her from chores so that she might continue her Torah study. After her father’s death, Osnat became a teacher at his yeshiva, and when Jacob died years later, she filled Jacob’s position. A respected and beloved teacher, Osnat was also considered a miracle worker. When her pet dove was struck by a hunter’s arrow, she healed it. In another astonishing event, she seemed to call upon angels to preserve the Torah scrolls inside a synagogue that had been engulfed in flames. Richly colored gouache illustrations fittingly walk a fine line between realistic and fantastical in this fascinating story about a groundbreaking historical woman whose deeds are remembered mostly in legends. (Ages 7-10)