Ivana Brezinská with her books. (source: Courtesy of I. B.)
When Ivana Brezinská packed her suitcases before she and her family moved to America nine years ago, she made sure to take children’s books – 50 of them in a single suitcase, in fact. She did not want her children, Nina and Michael, to forget Slovak.
Once they had grown up, Brezinská decided to share the books with other families in the USA. From groups on social networks she had found out that Slovak parents were struggling to find books for children in Slovak.
“I didn’t want to give them away completely, so I thought I would lend them out,” she says.
Brezinská’s idea caught on and soon she was collecting more children’s books to lend. By 2020 she had so many books that she decided to establish the first Slovak children’s library in America.
Inspiring Slovaks in Canada
Today, Brezinská’s library holds 1,200 books, all stored at her home in Yonkers, near New York City.
“The library is slowly starting to push us out of one room in the house,” she laughs.
She explains how her library works - parents can order a maximum of five books for their children through the library’s website or a group on Facebook. They have one month to read the books, and pay $5 to borrow five books, not including a charge for special book postage, although this is relatively cheap in America.
“We currently have 400 books taken out across America,” says Brezinská, adding that demand is highest for books for pre-school kids. “When children eventually learn to read in school, they then read books in English,” she explains.
Brezinská acquires books, textbooks and magazines through Slovak bookshops and publishers, authors, parents, acquaintances, collectors, but also thanks to the support of Slovak institutions such as the Office for Slovaks Living Abroad. But while her collection of children’s books is varied, she says she is grateful every time she can get hold of a new one.
“[But] what we need more than this is for people to be aware of us and to borrow as many books as possible because that’s why we’re here,” adds Brezinská.
Her idea is popular, however, and has already spread beyond US borders. A similar project was founded in Canada, which is home to some large Slovak communities. But unlike in the USA, posting books is expensive, and Brezinská is looking into alternative ways Slovak books from her library could be sent to Canada.
“Maybe we’ll take a trip there,” she says.
Good schools
Brezinská moved to the USA in 2014 when her husband took up a job offer to work for the United Nations in New York. Until then, he had worked in Bratislava.
“It was an offer that you couldn’t say no to,” she says.
But they also wanted to offer their children the chance of an American education - Brezinská and her husband believe the schools in America are better than in Slovakia. However, both Nina and Michael had problems settling into their new lives at first.
“They struggled with English,” says Brezinská.
But taking special English lessons for foreigners at school and with a teaching assistant who helped them during their studies, the two kids soon overcame their difficult start.
Brezinská is full of praise for the way American schools work with both their students and their parents.
“Cooperation between schools and parents is very good here. I’ve always liked it,” she says.
She also points out the wide range of extracurricular activities on offer to kids in American schools.
“There’s a great emphasis on sports here. Everyone plays a sport,” she says, before highlighting that other activities such as music, mathematics, and theatre, are routinely offered too. “Everyone has an opportunity at the end of the year to show what they have learned.”
Ivana Brezinská with books packed in boxes ready to be sent out to readers. (source: Courtesy of I. B.)
Return to Slovakia
But for all the benefits of living in the USA, the Brezinský family’s Slovak roots remain important to them. They regularly visit the Slovak folklore festival in New Jersey and visit cities with Slovak communities, such as in Pittsburgh, or where they can get a, literal, taste of home, or at least something very close to home – on a recent visit to Texas to see the Czech museum they found a place selling Czech cakes.
“If possible, we try to find places where Slovaks live,” says Brezinská.
And at some point, she adds, a return to Slovakia is the plan, although it may be only her and her husband who come back.
“I don’t think the kids will go back with us,” she says.
With elections back home coming up, Brezinská has a message for people in Slovakia.
“Fight for your future,” she says. “Life can be better, you just have to do something about it.”
This article was published with the support of a grant from the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic. The project idea came from Kristína Sojáková who works for IBM in NYC and co-runs the Slovak Professionals in New York group.
