Suncrest Elementary librarian receives national honor

Jun. 12—Librarians in elementary school field a lot of questions in the course of the school day.
Suncrest Elementary's nationally known librarian, Charlotte Chung, could write a book, then check it out, as she recounts the queries that have come her way in the course of her career.
"I had a student ask me, 'How do worms poop ?' 'Is infinity a number ?' I love that they immediately think, 'OK, let's ask Miss Chung. She's a librarian.'"
She can tell you all about it when you click on that video produced by the Carnegie Corp. of New York City.
Visit www.carnegie.org for that link. Chung was among 10 librarians across the U.S. recognized with the "For the Love of Librarians " award, sponsored by philanthropic firm and the American Library Association.
Chung was lauded for purchasing books and audiobooks in the native languages of students who attend the diverse school on Collins Ferry Road, by way of grants she secured.
Suncrest Elementary now boasts a multilingual collection of books that Chung says will speak to students there.
She was especially heartened this past school year, she said, by the kindergartener who proclaimed, "This book is for me, " as she showed the audiobook in Spanish to her classmates.
"By providing books in first languages, we as school librarians support the literacy and educational goals of our students, " the librarian said.
By third grade, educators and literacy watchers said, students should be reading to learn after years of learning to read.
Her fellow honorees include a bookmobile librarian in Hawaii who literally delivered the printed word and other informational materials to parents and students displaced by wildfires that ravaged the Maui coast in 2023.
Another high school librarian in Texas was spotlighted for her work with low-income families in her school district.

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