포도책방 탐험단 (Podo Bookspace Explorers Team)
Podo Bookspace
Gwangju
July 4th, 2026
(Jisu Sheen recently moved from New Haven to Gwangju, South Korea, where she’s covering local arts and culture for the New Haven Independent and Midbrow.)
Elementary schooler 해윤 (Hae Yoon) had a big decision to make Saturday afternoon. He was choosing between two books of puzzles and stories, both from the same series. Whatever he selected would be one of his prizes for becoming one of the 200+ bunches that make up Podo (“Grape”) Bookspace in Gwangju’s Buk district.
“They have the same characters,” he said in Korean, pointing to the matching sets of food-shaped cartoons with whimsical facial expressions.
He was one of the dozens of kid explorers who walked through Podo Bookspace’s doors that day. From morning to afternoon, students in first to third grade could come in, make friends, burn off some energy, and get excited about books.
Some of the kids were familiar with the space; others had come from as far as an hour away. They buzzed in their seats. Around every corner were books, shelves made of warm-colored wood, and notes of chill music.
The event was split into three cohorts of kids, each capped at fifteen. I caught up with the second session of brave explorers as they were writing their names on their new custom stamp books. By the end of their time at Podo Bookspace, they would be more than just literary detectives. They’d be bunches of grapes.
When the “bunches” met their teammates (assigned by the colors of their stamp books), it was their duty to greet each other and become friends. Then they launched into a series of challenges on the building’s second and third floors.
So what does it take to become a bunch?
Well, you have to traverse a hallway of strings rigged with bells without making a sound. And arrange cups into a pyramid using only rubber bands. Most crucial of all for a fruit made of pieces, you have to know what it means to work together.
Podo Bookspace contains four floors of shelves for members of their community to sell books they choose themselves. These can be used books from their own collections or new books ordered through the shop. Some of the shelves also feature items made of materials like clay or fabric, all for sale as well. The owners of these shelves pay a fee to keep their spot, then receive a regular payout as people buy their wares.
As prizes for completing their missions Saturday, each kid selected two books: one for a shelf at home, and one for their team’s shelf on the fourth floor. That’s right, they were becoming bunches of grapes in Podo Bookspaces’ vine—that is, co-owners of the community shop.
That last part stood out to me. As a former para-educator at Hill Central School in New Haven and producer of a three-episode kids’ puppet show on local cable in the Greater New Haven area, I’ve spent a good chunk of the past year trying to figure out what kids like.
Of course, kids are fans of kid-themed activities. Games, songs, and bright colors are always a safe bet. What I remembered while watching the festivities at Podo Bookspace was that adulthood is also, to kids, funny and interesting.
Months after leaving Hill Central, I returned as a journalist to cover a Valentine’s Dance. The same kids who had yawned at my attempts to engage them in storytime were suddenly all over my notepad and camera, fascinated I had a job. (I also had a job when they first met me, mind you.)
I was thrilled for Saturday’s explorers that, on the same day they learned about Podo Bookspace’s unique structure, they were invited to participate in it. They were going to decorate a shelf of their own. Not only that, they would select books they wanted to share with others.
Their adult chaperones had taught them how the bookspace works. Experience would teach them the feeling behind it—the anticipation of how others might feel stumbling upon their shelf, and the pride of being a co-owner. They decorated their displays with drawings of trees and crocodiles.
The world these kids were being introduced to seemed full of possibility. It’s a cool business model to me as an adult. What’s even cooler, I think, is being a kid who isn’t too aware this is out of the ordinary. In Podo Bookspace’s fruit wonderland, you can turn into a grape yourself. No sweat, no biggie. All it takes is a bit of coordination and the power of friendship.
