On a fall Saturday at Brookline Village’s new bookstore Turtle Books, local visual artist and bookseller Dena Bach gathers around a table of children to test out the store’s first Weekly Illustrators Workshop, during which she teaches children to write graphic novels.
The Weekly Illustrators Workshop is one of many events pitched and planned by the store’s Youth Advisory Board. The owners of Turtle Books, Bruce and Cathy Jacobs, aim to create an environment where kids feel comfortable exploring their love of reading.
Bruce Jacobs said he and his wife opened Turtle Books because of their love for children’s books and passion for children’s literacy.
“We had some concerns that kids today are less interested in reading than maybe they were years ago, so we were hoping to make some small contribution to turning that around,” Jacobs said. “We’ve seen it because we have three grown kids.”
Bruce Jacobs said he wants children to come to the bookstore and have fun finding books and exploring stories, which he thinks the bookstore environment cultivates.
“I love to see the kids. They’ll just find a corner of the store, and they sit down on the floor and just start reading. It’s very gratifying to see that kind of thing,” he said.
Senior Bea De La Rosa Cardoso, a bookseller at Turtle Books, curates the store’s social media accounts to inform the public of their upcoming events.
The store’s design features archways, beanbags and murals, which include the characters Winnie the Pooh, Little Red Riding Hood and The Dot. De La Rosa Cardoso said that she enjoys seeing customers have fun with the creative decorations.
“I’ve always loved seeing those in bookstores, because it makes it personalized, and especially for little kids, they feel so special,” De La Rosa Cardoso said.
Sofia Porter, a Youth Advisory member, writes shelf talkers. These will be displayed below each book she recommends. Porter said she joined the Youth Advisory Board because of Turtle Books’ cozy atmosphere and her vision for its future.
“I want to make this a space where kids can really find the joy of reading,” Porter said.
When starting the Youth Advisory Board, the Jacobs looked for elementary and middle school kids who had a passion for reading. Bruce Jacobs said he hopes the bookstore gives the advisory and the children who come into the store a space to explore their love of reading.
“We got these great emails from people that say how much they love books, and they would give us long lists of books that they recommended we buy,” Bruce Jacobs said. “That was sort of beautiful because we realized there are kids out there that really love to read, and they don’t necessarily have a place for them to express that.”
