17-year-old author collects nearly 1,300 books for Hindi's Libraries

Sumaiya Ramsaroop said she's confident in the kindness of strangers.

So when the 17-year-old held a donation drive and collected nearly 1,300 books for Hindi's Libraries, she said she wasn't surprised.

The organization collects and distributes children’s books all over the world to hospitals, homeless shelters, foster care systems and more. Its origin story touched Sumaiya, and she knew she had to get involved.

The chapter begins with Dovid Kanarfogel. He still remembers moving into what he describes as a "dinky" one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn. But it was wonderful because of who he was sharing it with: Dr. Hindi Krinsky, whom he married.

One of the first things they invested in together there were bookshelves.

"We had very different libraries that we married together," he said. She had all the classics: British literature, history, plays. Kanarfogel is more of a sci-fi guy.

"We couldn’t help ourselves at book sales," he said.

Krinsky and Kanarfogel eventually settled in Cedarhurst. Krinsky taught at the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway in Lawrence. Children’s literacy was always her passion. Kanarfogel remembers she took her students to see re-imagined Shakespearean performances and took time to really explain the historical context of the "I Have a Dream" speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. They had five children together.

In August 2018, Krinsky died of complications from Crohn’s disease. She was 32.

At the time, Leslie Gang worked in public relations and admissions at the school.

"We were broken," said Gang, of Hewlett. "We were all on autopilot in August. And then school started in three weeks."

Gang wanted to find a way to uphold her memory during the school year, especially for Krinsky’s children. "We wanted them to feel like their mom is still with them," she said.

So Gang helped start a free library box at the school. Third-graders were asked to each bring in one book to add to the box, so that students could take books to read as they pleased, free of charge.

Pretty soon, the principal’s office was filled with 500 books, Gang said. The box could only fit about 80.

Kanarfogel added that about this time, he started getting phone calls from Long Islanders, saying, "I hear you’re collecting children’s books." He started reaching out to community centers, food pantries and local families: "Anywhere a kid needed a book."

"It just kept going," Kanarfogel said. "We started very locally, and very quickly, we had more books than we knew what to do with."

In 2019, Kanarfogel and Gang cofounded Hindi’s Libraries. It was created to honor Krinsky’s life and love of reading. The organization is now a registered nonprofit, Gang said. Hindi's Libraries has collected about 175,000 books, which they’ve donated to about 400 organizations across the world, including all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Africa, India and Israel, Gang said.

Hindi’s Libraries also helps people organize their own book drives. The organization advises on how to collect books, spread the word and perform "quality control" on all donations, Kanarfogel said. They accept all new and gently used books. New books are specifically sent to children’s hospitals; they cannot accept gently used books due to germs, Gang said.

Fortunately for them, Sumaiya had plenty of books to spare. She's a self-published author of two books: "Emotionall," which is a work of poetry, and "Apollo of Helixion," a children’s book that promotes kindness, inclusion and celebrating differences.

"It’s a powerful message to send to impressionable children, that kindness makes the world go around," said Sumaiya, of Elmont. "That’s what gives you hope in times of adversity."

When her mother, Bibi Ramsaroop, found out about Hindi’s Libraries, she connected with its message. She and Sumaiya are very close — Sumaiya calls her "my best friend."

"I didn't know the loss, but I know the love of a mother for a child," said Ramsaroop. "That broke my heart completely."

So, they got to work, organizing a book drive in their neighborhood. Her friends, family, neighbors and even the staff of a nearby elementary school all participated.

"It was a great way to get as many people involved in kindness as possible, because that in itself is a gift: giving someone else the opportunity to be kind," Sumaiya said.

Sumaiya and her mother left a bin on their front doorstep for two weeks in March. In total, they collected nearly 1,300 books for Hindi’s Libraries, Sumaiya said, and she threw in 60 copies of "Apollo of Helixion."

When Gang received the donations, she said she was blown away. The books covered her entire front porch.

"To see that from a teen, it gives you hope," Gang said. "I’m a mom of two children and it inspired me. It gives me faith that there is hope in future generations. If you want to do something good, you can do it."

Going forward, Sumaiya is getting ready to graduate from Valley Stream North High School as valedictorian and weighing her options for college. Meanwhile, Kanarfogel hopes his organization can collaborate more with local libraries and help organize book giveaway events, once the pandemic ends.

The mission of this organization will always exist, Kanarfogel said, so long as parents keep buying books for their children and holding onto them even as the children grow.

"It was hard for us to let go of books," Kanarfogel said, looking back on that big collection he had with Krinsky. "And that’s been something meaningful for Hindi’s Libraries. People who like books, don’t like letting go of books. This is an opportunity to give new life to it."

By Rachel Weiss

rachel.weiss@newsday.com@RachMWeiss

Rachel Weiss joined Newsday in 2016. As a real estate/living multimedia reporter, Rachel writes feature stories and contributes to and appears in on-camera video packages. She was the lead reporter on Newsday’s LI Acts of Kindness series.