Christina

Christina Nhek, the graduate student in library sciences I met at the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association award ceremony, sent me this photo and caption:

Here is Christina, reading "A Path of Stars". As a future librarian, hoping to continue to help others find their paths by providing library resources to enrich their futures.

Christina writes:

I read (A Path of Stars) and immediately felt a connection as the story mirrors what my family experienced as they escaped the genocide and settled in America. I was the only "American" born child, the baby of five. I've heard the stories and that is one of the main reasons why I am pursuing my masters in Library Science. I want to piece together tangible artifacts, especially photographs that survived the war, of Cambodian people, and help continue to preserve the culture of what was almost destroyed... We are such a small minority group in the vast ocean of immigrants here in the U.S. that people generally don't know where we are located on a map. 

Meeting Christina and hearing a tiny bit of her story - and knowing she's a future librarian! - is the kind of experience that makes writing and illustrating children's books across difference so rewarding.