Hooked on books? Visit Hook On Books!

Have you been to a place that stirs up those buried interest, passion and dreams and you leave the place feeling so happy and alive? 

The Foong Family visited 童言童语 (Hook On Books) a few weeks back and it is one of those places. It was especially so for Mama Esther (me!) who used to be a Chinese Teacher.

Personally, I find Chinese Language a very beautiful and Creative language. Think about it, which language's written characters were originated from how the object or scenario looks like? And how a portion of the character can tell you its material or the pronounciation? Just the word "carry" can be expressed in different degree in Chinese: 拿、提、扛、背、带、载、搬、抱、拎、抬！

Sadly, the Foong kids' level of Chinese language is not that great. Lack of exposure and environment to speak and limited time to practise (we only have our evenings as a dual income family) could be reasons (but cannot be convenient excuses).

Creating interest is important. With interest comes motivation and learning will be a joy. :) Saw this place on my NIE lecturer's Facebook and off we went!

What welcomed us at first sight are those big 卡通体 words! 童言童语！I felt as though I was in Taiwan!

“这是属于你的华文华语小天地…”

Before you enter, this beautiful board gives you the instruction how you can enjoy this space.

At Hook On Books, other than purchasing books and stationeries, you can also go to a little corner to take a read. The books here are donated by public and quite a big collection of different genres.

From top left: books for sale, starioneries and traditional games, surprise bags and recommended reads.

Even the toilet is nicely done with a soundtrack of birds chirping playing in the background.

If you thought that this is just a book shop, you are so wrong! You can handmake notebooks, cards and dried flower bouquets at a very reasonable price. :)

Notebooks

There are two sizes that you can opt for: 

A5 for $8.50

A4 for $9.90-10.90

You can choose the papers for the cover and inner pages. I especially like the inner pages: single lines, Chinese squares or calendar. 

The shop was very generous with the materials provided. Dried flowers, little wooden decorations and animal templates that the ladies cut out themselves!

A special mention of the ladies at the shop! They were patient and spoke very pleasantly. Nathan and Phoebe had a fun time just decorating and drawing!

Here are their beautiful end products that the ladies have bound together using strings and little brunches!

We were in the shop for a good 1.5hrs and we ended the session with a yummilicious fruit juice!

Here's the details of the shop! Don't say I bo-Jio! :)

Word Play: Sarahbelle's Playful Puns

Some may not like travelling in a car with kids because they usually don't understand the concept of indoor voice very well and some times you cannot really control what happens at the back seat: "Kor Kor hit my face!" "Mei Mei is licking the window!"

For us, we are very thankful that my kids are relatively quiet and calm when they are in the car. Especially for Nathan, when he has a book in hand, it will be silence throughout the journey. This little dude is a bookworm just like his daddy. 

We received a book in our mail when we got back from Taiwan last week. 

It is written by a fellow mother and her 6 year old daughter. It was colourful, with all the girly Colours!

 

I was the first to read it and personally, I didn't give it deep thoughts as settling down after a trip to winter Taiwan means A LOT OF WASHING to catch up with. 😩😩😩

I read it again the next day and being a teacher, I started to assess its tempo and punch, whether it is interesting and who should the target audience be, blah blah blah. (This is so embarrassing.) I told Elvin I need sometime to digest.

I left the book by my bedside and went to bed.

The next morning, I found Nathan reading it. I thought, let's see what he says. He was giggling and I think he easily read it three times, with a wide smile.

We went out that morning and I found out that he brought it along with him and was reading it in the car.

 

He was reading it aloud and laughing. I kept hearing him say, "this Sarahbelle ah, she is funny!"

Later in the day, there were several occasions which Nathan would say, "Sarahbelle said that otters... " "do you know you can play with words? Sarahbelle mixed these two words up!" (I don't wanna spoil it for you.)

This is his favourite page.

 

He just kept giggling about the word puns!

Guilty. I felt so guilty. For not enjoying a book as it is. For being fast to analyse and comment. Sometimes, reading involves more than what you receive at surface value. Nathan is not just reading. He is enjoying the book. He is learning. He is relating. He is creating!

This morning, guess what I found Nathan with again? 

Yup, he was reading "Sarahbelle's Playful Puns" to Phoebe and teaching her the words in it!

So, I would like to recommend this book, simply because it is sincere and resonates with so many of my moments with my two cheeky ones AND children will enjoy it.

ALSO, we should support budding local authors! Definitely, there are some areas for improvement but for a Mother of three young kids to take a leap and publish a book, we can encourage her by buying one for ourselves or getting one for someone you know who has a cheeky one like mine. :)

Support local author and get her book from this crowdfunding site or at Le Petit Pumm, Centerpoint, #03-05. It will make a great christmas present for the 4 to 8 years old.

P/S: while Nathan was brushing his teeth this morning, he was grumbling about something, and I said "it really doesn't matter, dude." This cheeky boy replied, "I am not metal. You are not made of plastic." Then he broke out into crazy laughter. 

“Sarabelle’s Playful Puns” is written by a local writer, Anastasia, who is a part-time working mum to three young children. An ardent advocate of reading, she believed that learning and speaking a language can be immensely fun and enjoyable.