I'd first visited one of Du Yi's Bookstores years ago, and had left only with the impression that it was a good place to source for affordable stationery and gifts for my students. A quick search online reveals that most people feel the same — the store has a single 2-star review on Yelp (See: https://www.yelp.com/biz/du-yi-book-shop-singapore-2) about the pens someone had bought there at less than a dollar each; and out of the eleven reviews on The Smart Local (https://thesmartlocal.com/reviews/singapore/shop/shopping-retail/books-stationary-comics/du-yi-bookshop/) from 2012 to 2013, eight mentioned something positive about the range of cheap stationery available there. Their own Squarespace site seemed to have been last updated in 2015, did not feature the new store in PLQ and still indicated that they could be found in Bedok Point, Hillion Mall and Westmall [that's no longer true].
So no, their online presence does not come across as promising.
Nevertheless, I recently chanced upon another outlet at Paya Lebar Quarter (a.k.a. PLQ Mall), and with the lenses of a (relatively) new aunt to a nearly 18-month old child, suddenly, I now saw the store in a brand new light.
Who could have imagined that such
an unassuming looking, relatively unknown little store would leave me impressed?
Here’s what I’d left with:
1) Vocabulary Word Cards
If you are a caregiver or a teacher of young children, you might have realized by now that it is incredibly difficult to find word cards that feature authentic pictures. Children's books and resources are are too often filled with illustrations or (worse still) anthropomorphic food and animals. So it was a delight to discover that Du Yi Bookstore had a range of word cards and vocabulary books that featured authentic pictures.
Since le' little niece has been learning to recognize the various fruits and vegetables in her diet, I simply could not pass up this beautifully created set of double-sided, full-glossy coloured, water-resistant vocabulary cards that cost just $4.90.
The bookstore also had a range of similarly beautifully crafted English vocabulary resources that feature authentic images - leave a comment if you'd like me to discuss them as well!
2) Basic Vocabulary Book
This was purchased as part of a '4 for $10' deal — given (again) the authentic images, and good quality printing, wouldn't you agree that it is quite a steal?
3) Picture books with Hà nyǔ Pīnyīn - 'cos us adults need all the help we can get, ya?
These books made up half of my '4 for $10' deal, and made me a very happy girl that day.
4) Series for Teaching Simple Life Skills
The last of my '4 for $10' deal — my only gripe is that the illustrations inside did not live up to the expectations formed by the super adorable cover. Each book features two short stories that fit the theme, and after a quick browse through the others in the series, I'd concluded that all of them contained equally (slightly) disappointing illustrations but very well crafted stories.
5) Mini Fairy Tales
Each metal ring binds ten palm-sized booklets together; each set costs $3.90.
Yes. It's $3.90 for TEN decently printed booklets, many of which contained more than one short fairy tale. And no, the stories are not riddled with nonsensical plots or errors.
Just one set would probably have been enough to occupy many, many sessions of reading aloud, but this aunt thrives on being extra.
There were also many English-based resources that I was badly tempted by but was able to resist because le' niece already has a lot of those. These Chinese-based ones were simply too rare a find to resist.
Besides, of course, the large range of affordable stationery and gifts available, one other factor that stood out for me was that I'd actually spotted some books sporting prices significantly lower than on my long-standing favourite source for books: Book Depository. That was a little mind-blowing moment in itself.
Did you spot any item here that you might to check out for yourself?
Drop me a comment if you did head down to one of Du Yi's Bookstores and share what hidden gems you've discovered there too!
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