Bridging a Language Gap

In the era of public debate over bilingual education, Isabel Schon, professor of children’s literature at Cal State San Marcos, shies away from politics.

Her mission as director of the university’s Center for the Study of Books in Spanish for Children and Adolescents is simply to get youngsters to fall in love with books--no matter the language. Schon founded the center in 1989 in the belief that children who embrace reading at an early age have an increased chance of becoming lifelong readers, and that they are more likely to embrace reading if their parents read with them.

Today, the center has 80,000 books--which Schon says is the world’s largest collection of books in Spanish for children and adolescents and books in English about Latino culture. Families who pay a $15 annual membership fee can borrow books from the library, and anyone with access to the Internet can use it as a resource for finding reading materials.

California’s bilingual education issue aside, Schon says that many children in the state have Spanish-speaking parents, and it is especially important for parents with children not yet in school to make reading a family activity.

“I’ve never said you have to read in English, or you have to read in Spanish or you have to read in Chinese,” she said. “What I’ve said, and all research shows this, is that when children fall in love with reading at a young age, they become lifelong learners.”

California’s bilingual education ban has resulted in an increase in use of the center by parents, librarians and university professors, Schon said. Interest is also strong from other states with large Latino populations or where bilingual education continues.

“More and more libraries are buying books in Spanish. And it’s not the usual suspects: Miami and California. There’s a large population . . . in Chicago, and of all places, the Northwest,” said Sally Estes, youth books editor for Booklist, the American Library Assn. review journal for which Schon writes a regular column.

The Chicago-based Great Books Foundation, which promotes literacy, has come to Schon for recommendations on translators for a pilot project translating a handful of English classics like “Jack and the Beanstalk” into Spanish.

“The reason we’re doing this is because everything I’ve read points to the fact that it is easiest for children to become literate in their first language,” said Ann Speltz, a senior editor with the Great Books organization.

The center has everything published in Spanish for children and adolescents around the world since 1989, Schon said. Similar centers in Venezuela and Spain collect only books published in those countries.

The center runs on a $100,000 budget from Cal State San Marcos, but virtually all of its new books--worth about $80,000 each year--are given to the center by publishers who want Schon to review them.

Located on the fourth floor of Craven Hall on campus, the center looks like a small library, organized by topics such as biography, fiction and science. Some titles for younger children include “Como Crecen los Gatos,”--a translation of “How Cats Grow,” by Millicent Selsam--and “Teo y Sus Abuelos,” by Spanish writer Violeta Denou, which illustrates the adventures of a young boy and his brother visiting their grandparents in the country.

“I think we’re fortunate to have something like that nearby,” said Mariano Loyola, a center patron who has checked out books such as an illustrated dictionary for her daughter, 3-year-old Marisa, so she can learn colors, shapes and letters. “Being that she’s going to go to school here, we’re not worried about her learning English. We’re worried about her losing Spanish.”

The center’s summer workshops, sponsored by the California Assn. for Bilingual Education and scheduled for June 21-23, July 6-8 and July 19-21, deal with various issues of bilingual and Spanish literature for youngsters.

Schon, who earned a PhD in library science from the University of Colorado at Boulder, was a founding faculty member of Cal State San Marcos’ College of Education. Previously, she was director of reading at Arizona State University.

She reviews children’s books for professional journals and PBS’s Para La Familia, the Spanish-language counterpart of the network’s Family magazine. She has written 19 booksmainly for academics, but also some children’s books, such as a collection of Spanish nursery rhymes titled “Tito, Tito.”

Parents, she says, should set a good example by keeping and reading books and magazines in the home and establishing a quiet place for reading.

“When we blame schools or society, research always comes back to the single criterion that affects children’s reading habits: parents,” she said.

The center has about 500 dues-paying member families who, as “Amigos of the Center,” can check out up to 10 books every three weeks. (The center is open 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.) It can be reached at (760) 750-4070.

Free access to a database of 5,000 books recommended by Schon, with distributor listed, is offered on the center’s Web site at https://www.csusm.edu/campuscenters/csb/. Parents can also find many of the books at bookstores and libraries.

“We are telling parents that there are wonderful books in Spanish out there,” Schon said.

* IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LIVING: When someone dies or goes away, children may have a hard time understanding why. Some books can give children and parents reassurance and support. E3