Board books in Spanish. Picture books starring drag queens. Middle grade and young adult novels about racism. These are just some of the books you will find at Hipocampo Children’s Books (HCB). When Pamela Bailie and Henry Padrón-Morales opened their shop in 2019, the number of independent bookstores nationwide was declining. But they have thrived by staying true to their vision of being a place that reflects the various families and cultures in Rochester.
“As booksellers, we choose every single book that is on our shelves,” says Bailie, who was born in Northern Ireland and lived in Hawaii, California, and Oregon before moving to Rochester twenty years ago. “But we also take book recommendations from our customers on an almost daily basis.”
About forty percent of Rochester’s population identifies as Black and about twenty percent as Hispanic or Latinx. Both are groups that have been historically ignored in children’s literature. Recently, the number of children’s books created by and about Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), and those who identify as LGBTQIA have increased. While there is still a lot of work to be done, HCB features these titles so kids and teens can see themselves in books— and others can learn about the many cultures that make up the community. Popular picture books and early readers, like the Elephant and Piggie series by Mo Willems and Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin, are available in English and Spanish. The shop also offers traditional folktales from around the world, like Juan Bobo, a favorite of Padrón-Morales’s. Overall, there are books in fourteen different languages on HCB’s shelves. For middle-grade readers, the Tristan Strong series by Kwame Mbalia (featuring African American folk heroes and West African gods) and Pandava series by Roshani Chokshi (about an Indian girl and Hindu gods) are popular. Others from this Rick Riordan Presents imprint also sell well.
For older teens, novels by Latinx author Elizabeth Acevedo, like The Poet X, are popular. And for all ages, cookbooks fly off the shelves. Not only do they offer recipes from around the world, but they tell stories around their food. The Art of Fufu (West African culture and cuisine) and A Taste of Puerto Rico by Yvonne Ortiz are two examples.
Padrón-Morales, who moved to Rochester from New York City as a teenager, says some of his favorite books are those that connect his “two worlds” of Puerto Rico and the United States. A number of graphic novels HCB carries fit this bill. Puerto Rico Strong and Ricanstruction are two anthologies whose proceeds benefit Puerto Rico’s post-hurricane reconstruction. Marvel’s America is an LGBTQ Latinx superhero. Coqui, a Puerto Rican superhero, has made his way to the States as well, and graphic novels are one of the most popular sellers in the store.
Prepandemic, the HCB founders had planned to host regular writing workshops and story times. For now, they are doing what they can to be an interactive part of the community, like having a bookstore branch at La Marketa where they sold Spanish and English books. The Allendale Columbia School took a field trip to their store. They supported local artists in a comic book fair this past summer. HCB partnered with the 2021 Greater Rochester Teen Book Festival and Greater Rochester Teen Read for book sales. The website also has links to community members’ bar and bat mitzvah projects and birthday fundraisers.
“People always ask Henry to work with them on visits and events,” says Bailie, though it can be difficult since Bailie and Padrón-Morales are HCB’s only two employees. Bailie recently left her job in public health to work on the bookstore full time, and she has three children. She also makes time for her daily walks and live music events. Padrón-Morales works in curriculum development and migrant education, teaches Spanish, and is a board member of the Grupo Cultural Latinos en Rochester, among many other things. In his spare time, he writes poetry to Afro-Caribbean rhythms and does martial arts.
So, what’s in store for Hipocampo in the future?
“We need more space,” says Padrón-Morales, stating that even if they need to move to a new location, it is a priority to stay in Rochester. They just procured additional shelving and are looking at ways to fit more merchandise, like a larger inventory of books published for adults.
The pair also looks forward to bringing back programming and expanding it to Spanish classes for children and adults, and workshops like poetry writing, photography, graphic novel creation, music, and more. They want to host author visits for all ages and continue to spread the word about HCB and encourage excitement about reading and literature.
If you cannot make it to the South Wedge to visit HCB, head to the website. “Our intention was never to be an online store,” says Bailie, but about twenty-five percent of their business is conducted this way. When they closed in spring of 2020 for the COVID-19 pandemic, shoppers went right to the website, especially those who wanted to support local merchants.
Whether by communicating online or in person, Bailie says the coolest thing about running the bookstore is that as it “grows and evolves, it really begins to represent the community as a whole, with one customer unknowingly picking a title that another customer had recommended [we order] just days before. People see books that they may recognize and love, and books they’ve never seen or heard of before, because of the care both we, and our community at large, puts into curating this collection.”
And that just about says it all.
For more information about HCB, visit hipocampochildrensbooks. com or email hipocampochildrensbooks@gmail.com. Stop by the store at 638 South Ave. Outtakes from our cover shoot Hipocampo Books