#1 Spot to Buy Children's Books in Kyiv

/Knyharnia Ye/ Книгарня Є

vul Lysenka 3 (Just behind the Opera theater. The entrance is in a courtyard, but there are signs at the sidewalk.

I'd heard about this bookstore from my cousin. A mom of three who lives in Kyiv. She said that she prefers to shop there rather than in Petrivka because the prices are almost the same and the atmosphere is much better. I've been around long enough to take that with a grain of salt so I did not raise my expectations very much.

One Monday night, I got a chance to go because there was a book launch and my father was asked to speak after the author's presentation. Hmm, I thought, a bookstore that an accomodate an audience. A far cry from the bookstore I visited on Khreshchatyk in 1989 that had all the books on display on shelves behind a counter. You had to ask the clerk to bring you a specific book. They while you leafed through the tome (invariable hard bound) the clerk hovered as though you were on Fifth Avenue fingering a diamond ring. That bookstore certainly has no room for an audience.

Since there were five of us, I called a cab. (MAKE LINK TO POST ABOUT THE PLETHORA OF CAB COMPANIES). We made our way through Kyiv traffic and got to Lysenka Street. Nothing that looked like a bookstore storefront, but we did see a large sign with the letter 'Є' and an arrow. Following that arrow, we found another sign (with the same logo and graphic! 'Hooray! A victory for brand consistency,' I thought to myself.) The trail of signs led us into a courtyard, down a small (covered) staircase and into what looked like 'Politics and Prose' in Washington, DC.

I was thrilled with this store. It had hardcovers, paperbacks, workbooks, games, even card games and tiles with letters on them to build blocks and buildings. The kids section was right next to the section of 'parenting' and 'children's education' books so I was able to pick up a book about the curriculum of teaching kids Ukrainian.

The staff was helpful and even held on the 4 bags of books I bought. I couldn't take them with me that night since I wasn't heading straight home so the sales person held on to them for me until I came back the next day. They picked up the phone when I called. And even answered a question about the availability of a specific DVD.

The weird thing about the bookstore was that when I mentioned it to several of Ukrainian-speaking parents who live in Kyiv, they did not know about it. But when I walked in with my friend, a sculptor, he was familiar with the store and even spotted an old friend who was walking in. The bookstore seems to have filled it's business with a certain niche and hasn't done much marketing to grow its audience base.

Книгарня Є
Київ, вул. Лисенка 3
044 228 05 66
www.book-ye.com

Pros:
All books are in Ukrainian
The collection is curated, so the junk is minimized. There is less noise.
The kids section is large *and* it has a small table and small chairs so little kids and leaf through books on their own.
(There is also a room that can be set up classroom style for book presentations with closed circuit TV so you can watch on the flat panel monitor above the chaeirss' heads (plural!).
If you buy 300 UAH worth of goods, you'll automatically get a loyalty card for 5% off all future purchases.

Cons:
The airconditioning is inadequate, if even in existence