Worcester, MASS-- Since January, more than 9,000 books have been checked out from this one-of-a-kind library at a Worcester elementary school.

“I would say it’s probably about 50/50 for making sure we have books that are in Spanish as well as English,” assistant principal Jodi Moynah said. 

The new, bilingual library at Worcester Dual Language Magnet School features nearly 5,000 multilingual books, primarily in Spanish and English.

“ We do a lot of reading in the classroom of course, but a lot of it is the curriculum. So this gives students an opportunity to find books that they’re excited about,” Moynah said. “Find books that they want to read. Books they can bring home to read to their families.”

Moynah said the added access to new books helps the school better support their students and allows everyone to enjoy reading, regardless of language.

“We have students whose primary language is English learning Spanish and whose primary language is Spanish learning English,” she said. 

More than 75 percent of the school’s students are Hispanic or Latino. Instruction is shared in both english and spanish and by 3rd grade, the day’s lessons are split half and half. 

“It’s a nice extension from the classroom that gives students the opportunity to be excited about reading, in both languages,” Moynah said. 

The effort to build this library was largely led by the school’s parent teacher organization.

“They worked extremely hard to get donations. They worked directly with the Worcester Public Library and donated countless hours of their time to catalog books and to clean out books that weren’t necessary anymore,” she said. 

Parent volunteers have donated more than 500 hours of their time this year to staff the library, allowing students from all 29 classes to make a weekly visit.

“Having the opportunity to come, right at their own school and check books out and check books back in. I see children every morning running back and forth to check in books they read over the weekend,” Moynah said.

Moynah said they encourage all students to spend at least 20 minutes a day reading outside of school and this library makes them one step closer.