Brookline Village Library unveils space for tweens

This piece was published in Boston's local newspaper The Brookline TAB on February 19, 2019. For one of my classes, Reporting in Depth, I served as a staff writer for a full semester. You can find the originally published story here.

On weekday afternoons, the Brookline Village Public Library is bustling with jubilant tweens who are playing ice-cream-themed games of hangman, planning choreographed dances, and working together to do tonight’s round of homework in the newly developed Tween Space.

Brookline Village Public Library celebrated the opening of the Tween Space on Jan. 31 as a way to show kids from grades 5 to 7 that there is an area in the library just for them. This section of the library, which is located in the Commons on the ground floor, has Tween Only hours from 2:30 to 6 p.m. every weekday.

Abbey Stephens, librarian for the tween audience, said the Brookline Village Library administration saw large crowds of tweens coming to the library after school and noticed that they didn’t have a dedicated space.

“They didn’t really feel comfortable in the Children’s room, and they weren’t allowed in the Teen room,” she said. “I feel really proud that we saw that, very quickly addressed it and created this space for them that they are all so excited about.”

Griffin Schroeder, 13, one of many students from Pierce School who uses the Tween Space regularly to “hangout outside of school, get a snack, and have a good time.”

“It used to be a common room where we couldn’t get too loud, but now it’s more centered around kids,” he said. “It’s easier to talk and feel more relaxed.”

Natalie Layne, supervisor of Children Services at the library, said because both St. Mary and Pierce schools are so close, their Tween Space has become “a built-in after school population.”

“That serves us well in terms of programming and also in terms of knowing what our kids want and what the kids need within the community,” she said.

The space is continuing to grow in popularity, in part through word of mouth among children who weren’t coming to the library before. Zanna Berthold, 11, found out about the Tween space from her friend Lydia Oslund, 10.

“I came because me and Lydia are best friends, and she wanted me to come to the library,” Berthold said. “I said ‘sure,’ but I didn’t know there was a Tween center.

“Now, we’ve been coming together every single Thursday.”

Stephens said the Tween Space is encouraging more students to spend time in the library, even kids who might not typically like to read.

“They’re looking at the displays of graphic novels, and they will flip through them as they are sitting there with their friends,” she said. “They don’t always check them out, but they’re looking at them still — and that’s very exciting,”

Layne said these types of niche spaces for kids are not only educational but also have a lasting emotional impact.

“It’s a space to be and to be themselves and find the materials they want to read,” she said. “They feel the ownership, and they feel like we listen to them, we understand them, and we give them what they need.”

Margo Ghertner is a Boston University journalism student writing as part of a collaboration between the Brookline TAB and BU News Service.