YOUNGSTOWN — Ailynn Eldridge enjoys learning to read and write, though she’s mindful that not long ago, such pursuits often were unavailable to children who looked a lot like her.

“Today I learned that black people couldn’t go in schools because they were black, and only white people can. That makes me feel really sad,” Ailynn, a Harding Elementary School second-grader, said.

The shameful legacy of Jim Crow laws was made painfully apparent to Ailynn. Nevertheless, she also learned about the actions of Minnijean Brown Trickey, one of nine black students who integrated the all-white Central High School in September 1957 in Little Rock, Ark., and paid a high price for her actions.

Telling Brown Trickey’s story was Penny Wells, one of the guest readers who visited Harding Elementary on the North Side, as part of the National Education Association’s Read Across America Day on Friday.

The day was established in 1998 to infuse students nationwide with an added dose of excitement about reading, via having parents, community members, students and teachers gather to read to one another and celebrate the joy of reading. It also takes place annually on the birthday of famed children’s author Dr. Seuss.

COLLABORATION

For her part, Ailynn collaborated with her mother to write a book, titled “The Story of Ailynn’s Leaves.”

“One day, I went outside and found these leaves and took a picture of them,” Ailynn said in describing the basis for her book. “I said to my mom, ‘Hey, let’s make a book about it,’ and she wrote what I said.”

Wells, the Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past organization’s executive director, read to Shannon Sefcic’s second-grade class a book by Johnnetta Betsch Cole and Nelda LaTeef called “African Proverbs for All Ages,” a pictorial that describes a series of basic and valuable life lessons, such as working together to reach a common goal.

One such lesson points to the greater inherent value in losing than winning, since coming up short often gives people an added incentive to study and practice harder, as well as to re-evaluate themselves.

“You always learn more when you lose than when you win. When you work for what you need, you value what you’ve got,” said Wells, who bought the book at The Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Ala.

While discussing the nine black students who integrated Central High, Wells also told the second-graders they have the power to make a difference in others’ lives and in the world.

“You can be 90; you can be 7; you can be 8; you can be 15,” she added.

DREAMS AND GOALS

Another guest reader was Judge Theresa Dellick of Mahoning County Juvenile Court, who read three books to Victoria Worsencroft’s second- graders, including “Elmer,” by David McKee, which talks about the importance of being true to oneself.

The others were “Officer Buckle and Gloria” and “The Giving Tree” by Peggy Rathmann and Shel Silverstein, respectively.

All of us have a variety of dreams and goals, and reading has the power to amplify seeing how they can be reached and achieved, Worsencroft observed. She also drew a connection between a love of reading and the likelihood of reaching one’s goals.

Worsencroft, who’s taught at Harding Elementary two years, added that another value of Read Across America is its ability to let the students view judges, police officers and other community leaders and members through a wider and more positive lens. Specifically, the young people begin to see that such figures care about and want success for them, she continued.

READING IN SECRET

Also on hand was Judge Carla Baldwin of Youngstown Municipal Court, who read to Rita Creed’s fifth-grade class the Lesa Cline-Ransome book, “Light in the Darkness: A Story about How Slaves Learned in Secret.”

The book dramatizes how an enslaved mother and daughter go to school at night to learn to read while facing an ever-present danger of being discovered by patrollers on the lookout for escaped slaves. The school is nothing more than a deep hole in the ground, though they and other slaves learn to write letters in the dirt and pronounce their sounds in whispers.

Principal David Bermann echoed Worsencroft’s assessment of Read Across America, saying that he’s thankful for the opportunity the occasion gives his students to see authority figures in a more positive light. In addition, the day offers ways to be exposed to a broader world and deepen their engagement with writing, he observed.

Bermann also was thankful that not all of Friday’s guest readers came from outside of the building.

“They were phenomenal,” he said, referring to four fifth-graders who read to a class of kindergarten students. “I’ve got good people, staff and guests.”