Woods in the Books Blog

Ring ring! Who’s calling up to talk on the telephone? In this parent-child session focusing on Mandarin spoken communication and interaction, let’s listen to a story and then bring home a copy of《我想给你打电话》to enjoy! This session supports parent-child language immersion and is friendly to non-Chinese-speaking parents. Woods in the Books believes that a good story is a good start to learning a new language, made better when parent and child explore together. Each session of Chinese StoryTime begins with a handpicked story and Mandarin interaction during the session. To keep the momentum going, parents and children get to bring the...

In March, we hosted the authors of The House on Silat Road for a talk during the #BuySingLit Campaign. Si-Hoe S.S., the 'real Sing' whose memories form the basis for this book, recounted her most harrowing experience during World War II, as the family had to evacuate their home as bombs fell around them. We ran down the stairs, heading for the road. Halfway down, a bomb landed right in our path and burst into flames. Without a pause, Father hauled us high over the bomb, over the fire and dropped us on the other side. We scrambled to our...

Have you seen our window at Woods in the Books? I think it's a lovely window. It lets in the sun when the sky is clear, and it frames the pattering rain so prettily with its green painted grille. Last Christmas, in echo of our regular art on the Books Ahoy! window, our art director painted the window at Woods in the Books as well. You can still see the artwork dancing on the windowpane. But when construction came to call, our window had to put its face away behind bamboo scaffolding swathed in gauzy green drapes. (To read about...

There's been a time or two (or every week) where a customer wistfully looks over the counter at one of the bookshop elves and says, "You're so lucky to work here, where you can just sit behind the counter and read all day." As a group of booksellers point out in this ShelfTalker post on Publisher's Weekly, it would be nice, if we ever had the time to read in the shop! To be quite honest, the kids who pick up a Tintin volume and park themselves in a corner to finish as their parents browse for gifts probably read...