GREAT NECK, N.Y. (PIX11) — A 13-year-old from Great Neck is making great strides to help others celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
Madeleine Chin’s non-profit, Mindful Reading, has now donated 9,000 books to several local libraries, schools, and community centers to establish permanent AAPI bookshelves. She’s also self-published two of her own books, where the main characters are Asian American.
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Chin told PIX 11, “Writing books is a very long process, but donating books is something that means so much, but can be done so much faster.”
Chin said it’s important for children and young adults to have access to AAPI books because “not only does it give them a better sense of their own identity, but maybe even their parents, maybe even their country, maybe even have a better understanding of the people around them too.”
The Great Neck Library will soon have a total of five AAPI sections in its various branches. Sarah Clarke, the head of Great Neck Library’s Children’s Department, said they teamed up with Mindful Reading because “we felt it was the perfect opportunity to have kids have so many opportunities to see themselves in the book, and they’ve circulated so well, and people really love having it here.”
Chin also delivers motivational speeches to fellow students, and she’s going to start a Youth Ambassador Program so others can learn how to run their own community outreach programs.
As for her next chapter? Chin told PIX 11 News, “So the dream here is to write a New York Times best-selling book, then get a movie deal, and then co-direct or be an actress in that movie, definitely not star though, because I’m not the best actor!”
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