Korean bookstore finds: Korean sound and singing books

This weekend boasted a girlfriend getaway with my Korean college friends which included a trip to a Korean bath house, a Korean hair salon, a Korean restaurant, a korean food court, and of course a Korean bookstore.

The kids book section is very enticing at The Korean Book Center at the Koreatown Plaza in LA. It was hard choosing just one book. Lemme show you what else I would have bought.  These goodies combine 2 of my loves: books and children's music. I love that there's music attached to a BOOK and not to a screen.  I feel like kids these days (including myself) spend way too much time in front of the TV or computer screen.  So I want  to maximize any opportunities for education and entertainment that doesn't come from a screen.

1) This book by Samsung Books features the lyrics to a few favorite kid songs like the 3 bears, eensy weensy spider, and 10 little indians and when you press the corresponding button, it plays the song. It uses AAA batteries so it could provide hours and hours of entertainment.

2) This alphabet book by Edu JoyUp was considered one of his bestsellers by the bookstore owner?manager? The soundbox had buttons for each letter of the alphabet, the numbers, a few bonus words and a song about cotton candy. My friend snagged this one for her twin girls - sticker price was $35. It's also sold at Little Seouls for $29.99, but my friend still won since she didn't have to pay for shipping.  I bet it will be a well-loved book in her home.

3) This last book by Applebee books is like the first one, but I found it my friend's library.  It featured 6 songs with lyrics.



4) The last book I don't have an image to show you, but it was called Go-Mah-Wuh and had about 6 buttons in the soundbox that corresponded to different "polite" words like go-mah-wuh (thank you), mi-yan-heh (sorry), ahn-young (hi) and jahl-ga-rah (see ya later!).  It was shrink wrapped so I couldn't see inside the book.  But this one's also a keeper.







So, you're probably wondering where you would find these books if you didn't live near a Korean bookstore.  I'm wondering also.  Amazon has a great selection of Korean-English books, Hanbooks has a lot of great Childrens' Books (Newberry and Caledcott awards; in Korean), and I mentioned Little Seouls above, but their selection is limited.  Of course there are Korean online sites in Korean, but navigating those sites with my limited Korean would be difficult.  So,  I'm still on the look-out.  Any suggestions or help would be appreciated!