Nee Naw the fire engine and his friends plus granny and her goats are having the annual Pumpkin parade. Farmer Tom fancies his chances of winning and carries his large pumpkin on the back of his tractor. At the bridge over the river the tractor comes to grief with farmer Tom hanging precariously off the bridge by his trousers. Calamity. Then a friend of nee Naw’s, the impressive blue Moto Mike the motorbike comes to the rescue. Great illustrations from Bruce Potter add to the rhyming musical text of Deano Yipadee. Download the song and you can sing it yourself. Great fun ..read more

When I was sent this excellent young adult novel about identity and self esteem, I read the title and thought of Grasshopper, a character in the old TV show Kung Fu. Amazingly there is a martial art aspect to this novel with the main teenage character Grace, drawing strength and advice from the teachings of Bruce Lee. The start was weird as Grace aged 18 years waits at the railway station and a man comes up to her with a suitcase and asks her to mind it. She is reluctant but the man runs away and the suitcase starts to move by itself. You will have to read it yourself if you want to know why ..read more

Whenever I review a non fiction book I compare the information and arrangement of information with online sources to see which is better in terms of subject matter and age appropriateness. In this picture book about two endangered New Zealand dolphins – popota (Maui) and pahu (Hector’s) this book wins hands down. These are two of the smallest dolphins in the world at between 1.2 and 1.6 metres long. Their brains are 15-60 times bigger than a shark so they are smart and they sense things with an echolocation system which tells them how far away objects are and even if another dolphin is pregna ..read more

Andy is a little upset when his parents go out but he is left with a capable nanny who has a special little rimu tree. She tells Andy that the rimu tree will grant him three wishes as long as Andy believes in his heart that the wishes will be granted. Andy is a believer and when he lies down to rest he and his dog Archer are whisked away on a ship only to discover that a sneaky prate has legged it with his rimu tree. What is Andy and Archer going to do? fortunately they meet some fairies called Tipodes who are guardians of the Forgotten island where the pirates have taken the little rimu tree ..read more

This is a sequel to award winning picture book Duck Goes Meow also reviewed elsewhere on this blog, as duck continues his quest to become a cat. Mama cat teaches her two kittens plus the duck to wash their fur, to climb a tree using their claws, to stalk and pounce and hiss but when the trio meet some rough looking big cats, Duck begins to wonder whether he is a cat. Mama calms Duck down and says he has all the skills necessary to be a cat and not all cats are the same. When he snuggles into mama’s fur with the other two kittens guess what noise he makes? read it and find out. Carla Martell’s ..read more

Lenny the Loris announces at the start of this excellent picture book for primary and intermediate kids that he is “Here to teach you something new! how to talk to other people using only your hands”. He is not a very well behaved young loris and other animals in the forest are “scared stiff of his crazy mischief”. he drops an old meatball on Benny the bear cub, he sticks Riley raccoon to a tree with blue gum, he throws sally the Spider at Elly the Elephant but comes unstuck when he throws a rotten plum at a baby monkey. Read it and see what happens. How will Lenny’s bad behaviour be rewarded ..read more

A manatee is an aquatic mammal that was once mistaken by sailors as a mermaid. It inhabits tropical areas especially around Florida and it eats the sea grass which unfortunately creates gas in their intestines and makes them fart. Hence Bubbles. Most young lady manatees control their farting so that they have Elegance, Finesse and Serenite and they can glide , sashay and pirouette but not Bubbles. She wants to be different. She wants to use her farts to make he speed. She wants to zoot and squee much to the chagrin of her mother and the aunties. Then she hits an old turtle and enough is enoug ..read more

Jack wants to get the gold back that the rat stole on the ship he built then in turn is nabbed by the cat, the squid, the whale the seal and the crab before being taken ashore by the turtle. Of course there is more to it than that and it is told in rhyming text as a parody of the old English nursery rhyme The House that Jack Built. The question is will Jack get his loot back? Cleverly told by Peter Millett whose other books are reviewed on this blog and superbly illustrated by Sam Caldwell who captures all the action and the characters as the loot changes hands. Released on 11 April this woul ..read more

Ashton Hill primary school has 17 students of which Lucas, his sister Ellie and friend Harriet are students. The Minister of Education Mrs carter decides to close the school down and the children want to protest. Their teacher Mr Ngata tells them protest will fall on deaf ears and any petition will be put on the scrap heap. Lucas wants to persist and so does his friend Harriet. While flying a kite marked with high-viz tape in the evening causes a fuss when a local chicken farmer Mrs Jones reports a UFO in the area and it is printed in the national newspapers. Tourists start clambering into th ..read more

Good old fashioned story telling from the winner of the 2023 Tom Fitzgibbon Award. Set in the 1960’s when there were no cell phones, no computers, no online games and kids played outside and made fun by themselves and their friends. Marbles was a competitive sport and kids did jobs to get pocket money. Atama is 10 years old and his sister Maia is 6yrs. They live in Burnham army camp as their father is sent to Vietnam. he is good father and close to his son in particular. When he leaves he gives Atama a gold Star medal that his grandfather Koro, was presented with after the battle of Crete dur ..read more