#2 Spot to Buy Children's Books in Kyiv

Petrivka Rynok

A classic. At the Petrivka stop of the metro, you'll find a huge maze of stalls that are stuffed with books, DVDs, and games. It is a covered market. Several people discouraged me from going, saying that it was chaotic and mess, and you really needed to know what you were doing to venture over there.

One Saturday, my cousin (a cardiologist) was in town from Lviv for a conference. Before he headed back home to Western Ukraine, he wanted to check out up to three medical books. He could buy them in Lviv, but he was certain that he'd get a lower price at the market since 'all books in Lviv get there via Petrivka.' We agreed to go together and I met him on the subway platform at Maidan Nezalezhnosti.

A few stops later, we emerged at Petrivka. A bit of a mess. It looked like a bunch of stalls that had grown organically, where one stall was attached to the one right next to it and the only way it stayed up was by leaning on its two neighbors.

We made our way to the book section. Row upon row of a hodge podge of books. It reminded me of a photograph by Andras Gursky (the guy who does large format images of repetitive spaces that mess with reality.)

The way to shop for books here is to know precisely what book you want, then to walk up to a seller and ask if they have it. If they don't, then they might hustle and ask their buddy a few stall down or they might just say no, and you'll need to try your luck elsewhere. My cousin was looking for a specific video game in Ukrainian and for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, also in Ukrainian. The book was easier to find. We knew the publisher. The game was trickier because it had been done in both Russian and Ukrainian, but not all versions of the game give you the choice of language. One kid who was selling games hunted down a copy, but was unsure of the language. He got his buddy a few stalls down to lend him use of his computer and he tried to boot up the computer and the game. While we waited, I bought some workbooks from a neighboring stall.

Unfortunately, they guys never quite got the game and computer working correctly, so we couldn't confirm the language. We gave up and moved on.

Pros:
Petrivka is a good place to buy DVDs and CDs of titles that you know about ahead of time.
Many stands sold workbooks and study guides for school. It was the biggest selection I had seen.

Cons:
It's a market, not a store so if it's crowded you need to jostle to get at the goods.
You can't actually pick up every book without asking the sales person to hand it to you.
There is lots of stuff, so there is lots of junk. The selections are not at all curated, unless you know a particular sales person who stocks the kind of material that you like. (And who you trust.)