One way I encourage my children to enjoy reading is by bringing them to big beautiful bookshops. While there are many lovely bookshops in Singapore, there are few large ones with plenty of space for children to explore and explore, so when we travel, I often take the opportunity to work a bookshop or two into the itinerary.

Book Xcess in Malaysia is one such bookshop I like to bring the children to visit. We’ve been to the one in Johor Bahru several times, and this time round, we were in Penang, and decided to pay a visit to the one in Gurney Paragon. While not as big as the one in JB, it was already spacious enough with plenty of space for children to explore freely, and even sit down to browse through their picks.

I really liked that this outlet was fairly quiet, so we could take our time to browse through the shelves without pressure.

The bulk of the books you will find here are children books. You won’t find the latest titles but you will find plenty of the older popular children books.

For instance, if you’re looking for books like “The Gruffalo” or any of the Julia Donaldson titles, you won’t find them here. But you will find Roald Dahl titles and the Mr Men and Little Miss series.

You won’t find the latest award winning titles, or the translated Japanese children books that I like, but you can find some Disney, Star Wars and Marvel picture books.

This is not the kind of place I go to do serious book shopping, but it definitely is enough for me to go back with a trolley worth of books.

I do still recommend making a visit to this bookstore because the kids will totally love it, and also I find that the books here are comparably rather affordable.

They also have an online shop here!