Cal State San Marcos Book Center Will Speak These Kids’ Language

Although American children have enjoyed a smorgasbord of literary offerings, from Dr. Seuss to Roald Dahl, Spanish-speaking youngsters have been starved for books, or sometimes force-fed a diet of political propaganda under the guise of children’s literature, a North County educator contends.

Although the situation has improved, American educators have not recognized the growing collection of quality children’s books written in Spanish, said Isabel Schon, professor of reading education and library science at Cal State San Marcos.

Today, Schon will unveil a literary center that she believes is the largest contemporary collection of its kind in the world. The Center for the Study of Books in Spanish for Children and Adolescents, on the Cal State San Marcos campus, will show educators the types of quality Spanish-language children’s books that are available, she said.

The center, which is open to the public, features more than 5,000 children’s books in Spanish and books in English about Latino cultures.

Schon said the center, which will have a bilingual staff, will encourage reading among children who speak only Spanish.

“No country in the world compares to America in the quality and quantity of children’s books in English,” she said. “In the Spanish-speaking world, one has to be much more selective.”

“Ninos de Vietnam,” published in Cuba, is an example of anti-American propaganda, she said.

“The children of Vietnam suffered so that the Cuban children will be happier today,” according to the book.

Although quality Spanish-language books do exist, Schon said, teachers and librarians often buy translations of popular English children’s books because it is easier than looking for good original texts.

“In the States, an overwhelming majority of teachers and librarians say they prefer to buy the translations because they know the books, and it’s easier to read the translation of something, but they ignore the beautiful and authentic literature of the Spanish-speaking world,” she said.

She hopes the center, with its bibliographies and lists of Spanish-language publishers, will persuade teachers and librarians otherwise.

The center also has a collection of English books on Latino culture, which Schon called another much-needed resource.

“I can count them on my hands the number of good books about Hispanic children in English,” she said, adding that many such books often give the “tourist view” of life south of the border.

Meanwhile, school librarians have been slow to recognize the need for Spanish-language books, Schon said.

“School librarians seem to have more negative attitudes against books in Spanish being in either the library or the classroom,” she said, citing a survey of nearly 500 teachers, librarians and school administrators throughout Southern California.

“These (librarians) are not professionally trained people, and I want to believe it’s an attitude of ignorance and these people . . . do not have the understanding and awareness needed,” Schon said.

One in five respondents to the survey, which was conducted last March, said they agreed with the statement that “books in Spanish for children and adolescents are not needed in this school.”

Nine percent of the respondents said that using school funds to buy books in Spanish for children “is not in the best educational interests of young Hispanics in the U.S.,” a response Schon finds frightening.

“All research shows that (Spanish-speaking students) are going to be better readers and students if they start to read in the language they know and understand,” she said.

Children who are native Spanish speakers and readers and are immersed into English become frustrated and discouraged, she said.

“If we give them the books in Spanish, after three years they transfer to English, and in six years they are reading like their peers,” Schon said.

Several educators interviewed in San Diego County support Schon’s position and have plans to take advantage of the center.

“We have many students in San Diego that are coming to school with Spanish as their first language, and it’s very important that we have quality materials in literature and language arts available to teach,” said Rosalia Salinas, director of the statewide California Language Minority project.

“When students come, if they come at an early age, we need to develop their reading and writing skills in the language they already speak, and not hold up their educational growth,” Salinas said.