We're Off To Find A Kiwi product reviews

I like having books on our shelf that are intrinsically New Zealand and our native birds hold a special place in my heart, so I was delighted to get this book to read on my own and to the children. There were a couple of bits which I didn't like, enough to get on my nerves a little but not diminish too much from reading the book again. The first being a couple of lines in the book, such as, 'we search the city, every bitty', it wasn't a rhyme that I liked and irks me every time I see it. The second being that the author used native birds to help the children, and then threw in a sheep... I would have far preferred another native bird had been used for the story, the sheep seemed out of place for the tale.

Right at the back is a neat page with six facts about the Kiwi, which adds to the value if you were wanting to gift this to a non New Zealand family. The illustrations are lovely, they fit the general feel of the book and I love the Kiwi, Kea and Tui (especially the Tui, I thought it was done particularly well). My three enjoyed this book, wanting to read it a few times but it has since lost its charm, though they all insist that it's a must keep. I didn't enjoy this as much as I had hoped I would, which is a shame, but we'll hold onto it and may pull it out when we're in a Kiwi frame of mind.

Off to find a kiwi, what an amazing adventure that would be! Having lived in NZ for 20 years I can sadly say I have never seen a kiwi in real life but have certainly read many children's books with Kiwi's as the focus. My 5 year old loved this book and wanted to know if we could go off on a kiwi hunt so a trip to the Otorohonga Kiwi House may be on the cards as this book stirred up his interest in seeing a kiwi bird and wanting to know more about them.

We're off to find a kiwi has a nice rhyming pattern quite similar to we're going on a bear hunt which is quite popular in our house so it was nice to see the same sort of pattern in a kiwi style with a kiwi focus. NZ books are very important in our household and our favourite books to read, ones about NZ native birds are especially popular as I do love NZ wildlife and I think it is important to share these stories with our children. Reading the book you straight away learn some things about where kiwi's live.

As we go through the pages of the great kiwi hunt we find out places where kiwis would not live, you wouldn't find a kiwi on the beach or up a tree no that is not the place Kiwi's like to be. We have to go to deeper darker places to find kiwis, deep deep down in the dark dark forest! I found the book was very well written as we learnt why kiwis would not live in certain areas and it shows just how important it is to protect our kiwi birds natural habitat in NZ so we can protect this special bird.

The illustrations were beautiful I thought the New Zealand scenery were captured perfectly in the art with certain other native birds making an appearance in their habitats of choice. The New Zealand bush and coast were showcased in a spectacular nature in these gorgeous illustrations and I felt it captured the heart of NZ in a very cool little children's books that all children could enjoy.