Author: Nadia Luksich
Brooklyn Book Bodega’s mission is to increase book ownership among the youth, but its impact extends far beyond putting books on young people’s shelves. At its events, children take part in book giveaways while parents, caregivers, and volunteers connect, turning spaces built around reading into spaces that build community.
Last year, the nonprofit hosted or participated in 125 events: weekly book drives and giveaways, high-energy parties with DJs and games, library readings, literacy workshops, museum tours, and even the occasional urban farming session paired with cooking lessons. Each event supports the same goal: book ownership and literacy, while creating environments that make kids excited to read and bring communities together.
“We want books to be in the spaces and places where kids and families are,” says Rebecca Cohen, the nonprofit’s co-founder and executive director.
Brooklyn Book Bodega works with schools, libraries, and social workers to extend services those institutions already provide. Despite its name, the organization now serves all five boroughs, concentrating on neighborhoods classified as “book desert” areas where books and book ownership are especially hard to access, typically because they lack bookstores and other book outlets. In New York City, the Bronx and parts of Queens have the most pronounced book deserts.
The Bronx has gone without a dedicated bookstore for much of the last decade. After the Bay Plaza Barnes & Noble closed in 2016, no bookstore replaced it until the Lit Bar opened in 2019. Bronx Bound Books, a mobile bookstore and community initiative, now travels the borough in a bus to bring literature directly to neighborhoods, one of several mobile shops, specialty college retailers, and community pop-ups (including some hosted by Brooklyn Book Bodega) working to close the gap.
Research shows that having books at home significantly boosts literacy, particularly among children. Since its founding in 2018, Brooklyn Book Bodega has distributed more than 750,000 books to over 260,000 New Yorkers. The nonprofit considers 100 books the benchmark for a home library, a steep ask for many families. Twenty-six percent of children in NYC live below the poverty line, and according to Brooklyn Book Bodega, the average price of a children’s hardcover book runs about $21.85, putting the cost of a 100-book home library at roughly $2,185 if purchased new.
For Cohen, the goal isn’t just access; it’s ownership. “Another of our core values is ownership, and it’s about developing taste,” she says. When children have books at home, they choose what to read rather than simply receiving assigned titles, a small act of self-discovery that Cohen says helps shape identity. That sense of ownership, she argues, creates more excitement than borrowing a book from a school or library ever could.
“Libraries are great. Schools are great, but with us, a kid can pick up a book and say, ‘I can’t wait to read this in a year,’” she says.
That excitement was visible at a Summer Reading event at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Clinton Hill branch. “We do have a problem with book deserts,” says Ayanna Giles, a volunteer at the event. “We don’t want families having to choose between buying essentials and buying a $20 book … children get to pick whatever books they want, and it’s their book, and we love diversity, so we have a diverse set of books for children zero to 18.”
Even when a family can afford a book, Brooklyn Book Bodega’s presence in the neighborhood saves them an hour-long subway trip to get one. And the value of these events extends past the books themselves.
“[These events are] extremely important because it also allows for community engagement,” Giles says. “There are nannies or parents or whoever these are with their children. They are engaging with each other. You have the children playing with each other and talking. So, I believe it is a very great bonding aspect for the community.”
That sense of connection carries into the nonprofit’s other partnerships. At a book giveaway at the East New York Farmers Market, supported by volunteers from New York Cares, team leader Greg Drozdek says the event gives neighbors a chance to connect with people they might not otherwise see.
“If you came on a day when it was nicer, you’d see kids drawing over there on the floor and playing with Legos. So, very interactive,” he says.
East New York illustrates why the neighborhood counts as a book desert in the first place: 21.7% of residents in the East New York/Cypress Hills area live below the poverty line, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, compared with 18.0% citywide. The closest bookstores are in Richmond Hill and Bushwick, both roughly 40 minutes away by public transit. Multiple Brooklyn Public Library branches serve the area, but without a dedicated bookstore, building a personal library remains difficult.
Whether at a library, a farmers market, or a neighborhood festival, Brooklyn Book Bodega’s events do more than hand out free books; they chip away at the city’s book deserts while building a lasting excitement for reading.
Click here to view their events calendar.
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