If you have ever been to the game parks in Africa and you see a herd of zebra it is a wonderful sight. You wonder how they recognise each other because they all seem to look the same. But they are not. There are differences in the patterns that only zebras recognise and I think that is brilliant. Spotty the zebra is different and, you have guessed it, he has spots and is instantly recognisable from others in his herd. He is uncomfortable with this and yearns to be the same. he leaves the herd to find himself and encounters a golden mole that is blind and has a radiance that attracts Spotty. W ..read more

Toes are essential to give balance in your life., Without them you would topple over. This delightful picture book has a lot of toes in it “My Toes Your toes, Clean toes Stinky toes” Toes of different colours, wheelchair toes. Toes in jandals and flippers. Toes buried in sand, toes hanging 5 on a surfboard, goodnight toes. toes for every occasion. The text is funny and serious and is in both English and Samoan. Originally published in Tahitian in 2015 this has been adopted to Island life and it suits. The illustrations are appealing and all inclusive and at the back of the book there is space ..read more

The fourth delightful picture book in the Nanny Mihi series. Nanny Mihi is a lovely old Maori woman who lives by the sea and adores her grand children. Every school holidays they stay with her and in this beautifully illustrate picture book Nanny Mihi shows them how to plant , look after and harvest a vegetable garden. The story begins in spring with planting and finishes in winter as nanny and her grand children feast on the products of their toil. Suzanne Simpson’s illustrations portray a graceful Nanny Mihi with happy children and chickens that show personality. As always this story is tol ..read more

Watson is an adorable spaniel with caring inquisitive eyes and a gentle nature. he is being trained by the Conservation department to assist them in detecting endanger species in the wild without hurting them. Watson must be gentle with birds and frogs and even whitebait eggs as well as having fun at the same time. Fortunately he has a love of chasing and finding balls as well as a penchant for rolling in poo and having fun with children. Inspired by true events this book shows Watson being trained and a great fondness for piglets. Susan Brocker’s text, as always, is easy to read, knowledgeab ..read more

This is old fashioned story telling at it’s best and a terrific read-a -loud for juniors and pre schoolers. Tommy teddy is bored with his life sitting alongside Kiwi on Penelope’s bed. He sees birds outside his window singing and enjoying themselves and he muses that that is what he wants. He sees the birds have similar colouring to himself so decides he is a bird and changes his name to Tommy Twit. he goes outside to join the birds and they are sceptical but understanding. They try to teach him to fly and to eat bird food like worms. How will teddy handle that? Read this delightful story and ..read more

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