Review: Petaling Jaya Community Library - Bayan Bestari

Last Saturday, my girl and I visited the Petaling Jaya Community Library.  I was a member and I registered my girl as a member as well.  I have read about the toys library inside the PJ library and have wanted to visit it since this newspaper article.  

For your information, the toys library is situated on the Ground Floor of the PJ Community Library, opens daily from 10am-2pm and 2pm-4pm, except for Mondays opening hours is only 10am-2pm and Fridays opening hours is from 3pm-5pm only.  In order to use this section of the library, you need to register your child as a member which cost RM31 for the first time registration and renewal is RM15 annually.

To enter Bayan Bestari, your kid need to be 6 years old and below and you need to pay additional RM7/kid for each session, which I find a little costly for a 2-hour session and was wondering if this is the reason parents doesn't go.  However, comparing to shopping malls indoor playground, this is much, much more reasonable.  Also need to accompanied by a guardian.  Before going in, you need to remove the shoes.  A point to remember, please do bring an extra jacket and socks as it is very cold inside.

So what's inside the toys library which is named Bayan Bestari?  There were lots of books arranged according to age and more organised than the kid's library section.  Since my girl is between the 0-2 years old range, I have only explored these book shelves and found lots of books about alphabet, colours, animals, numbers and so on.  There are touch/sensation books, cloth books, big giant books, floor puzzle, electronic books and lots more.  I didn't ask if I could borrow these books but I have a feeling the answer is no and to borrow kid's books, must go to the kid's library section.

The floor is laid out with kid's playmats so no worries if your kid accidentally fell.  There were 2 kid's houses with small plastic balls inside the house.  There were a few mini kitchenette too, which you can see in the picture above.  There were also lots of electronic toys but I find them not working, so didn't bothered with it.  Soft toys are all over too and I like how nicely they have decorated the library with soft toys hanging from the ceiling.  There were also baby dolls, prams, trolleys, blocks of assorted type from wood to plastics, from small ones to giant foam type.  As for the mini kitchenette, there was vast amount of plastic food for role play.  And since we are talking about role play, there was a doctor's kit and a carpenter's kit.

My girl had a fun time exploring the toys especially and not much about the books.  The only thing that was a bit of a hassle was that each parent need to clean up and re-arranged back the books and toys to its original place after playing, which is the right thing to do but you know picking up after your kid with so many toys around, it's a lot of work, but it's good to keep it proper for the next kid to play.

My girl had fun knocking down the stack of cardboard blocks that was stacked from top to bottom, with the biggest at the bottom, few times and I have to keep on re-arranging it back to its original position few times too.

When we were there, there were also 3 kids about the age of 3-5.  So it was also good as an interacting session with the parents though none of us interacted.  As for the kids, you can see their behaviour.  My girl was super shy and stuck to me most of the time and dare not explore far and wide and was bullied a bit by the bigger boy who was very possessive with his toys.  Another girl has a loud voice and would voice out her frustrations loudly that everyone can hear, like when she can't find the toy she wanted or someone did something that she is not happy about.

All the parents have to sit on the floor as there were no adults chairs, only kid's chairs.  

As for me, I love the wide range of kid's books that I have been buying for my girl.  You know from Lady Bird to Usborne to Roald Dahl.  And they were so neatly arranged and so easy to find what you want compared to the kid's library where books are everywhere and not arranged to age.

However, when we were there, my girl was more attracted by the toys than the books and it was hopeless to get her to read some books.

All in all, I think all parents in PJ should bring their kids there.  Let the kids explore and enjoy.  For me, I was a little paranoid about the cleanliness of the toys, not sure if anyone wipe and clean them etc.  I was more into the books than the toys.  So, there you go.  Bayan Bestari.  Not a big place but a nice cosy little corner in the PJ Library that brings lots of joy to the kids.  Remember to bring a jacket as it is super cold inside.