Khanh Nguyen was all smiles last week as he received the "I Did It for My Children Award" during the Adult Literacy Program's celebration dinner.

His personalized certificate recognized the effort he made over the past year to be able to read books to his children, Kathleen, 7, and Benjamin, 2.

It was Kathleen, now in the second grade, who prompted the effort, Nguyen recalled.

"One time, she brought homework home and she asked me to read it," he said. "I'm really OK, but some words I cannot understand."

That's changed in the year since he began working with tutor Harvey Gottlieb, a retired Stockton Unified science teacher.

"I can read the book," Nguyen said. "I get books from the library and go there and read to her."

He's made big hits with one book about a dinosaur, and especially Ludwig Bemelmans' children's classic, "Madeline." She's the heroine who's the smallest but spunkiest charge of Miss Clavel, who oversees the education of "twelve little girls in two straight lines."

Nguyen smiled as he recalled his daughter's reaction: "She just kept having me read it again and again."

He and other program participants also shared their personal struggles with varying degrees of illiteracy and their efforts, with the help of the Stockton-San Joaquin County Public Library program, tutors and leaders, to learn to read.

One man told how he was moved when his wife of 40 years wrote her first note to him. Another credited his tutor not only with helping him learn to read to his grandchildren, but also with helping him get off drugs and alcohol for the first time in many years.

The Adult Literacy program is only one of five library programs that draw support from the Library & Literacy Foundation of San Joaquin County. The others are:

* Reach Out and Read San Joaquin, a childhood and family literacy program. When children visit medical offices, volunteers read to the youngsters, give out free books and encourage family reading at home.

* Training Wheels, a mobile library service aimed at preschoolers who might not be able to get to a library branch. It serves a number of locations in Stockton, as well as outlying county communities.

* Families Reading Together, literacy workshops, which teach parents about sharing reading with their children.

* One Book, One San Joaquin. An annual program in which area residents are encouraged to read a certain book, then to participate in a discussion of the work.

And the foundation also supports the library system's new-book budget, said Susan Spracher, the foundation's executive director.

It's an effort that amounts to $320,000 in its current fiscal year and is largely supported by donations and the Trivia Bee, the Library & Literacy Foundation's annual major fund-raiser. But money is a secondary goal.

"The foundation's main focus is to raise awareness of the overall library programs and needs," Spracher said.

Raising awareness, one person at a time, is largely why Gottlieb is an adult literacy tutor and taught science, for 20 years at Stagg High School and before that seven years at Marshall Middle School.

"It's always in teaching, that's the main thing you look for. I think somebody called it the 'Aha moment,' " Gottlieb said. "That's the reward of teaching."

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* To reach reporter Reed Fujii, phone (209) 546-8253 or e-mail rfujii@recordnet.com

Library Foundation

The Library & Literacy Foundation of San Joaquin County welcomes donations of cash, books, raffle prizes and time.

Money buys program supplies and books. Donations of newly released books will ease a shortfall in the library's book budget. Volunteers can tutor adults, read to children and help organize the Trivia Bee, the foundation's major annual fund-raiser. Gift certificates and other potential raffle prizes are also needed for the Trivia Bee. For more information, call (209) 937-7196 or e-mail literacy4all@ci.Stockton.ca.us.

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