Another great book which is made for reading aloud.
Bruce, who uses the books to help raise funds for Hearing Dogs, has created two lovable characters in both Kiwi and Roo, and each book brings them to life beautifully. Bruce uses "good old fashioned Kiwi and Aussie slang", as he terms it, to make the books particularly relevant to youngsters in this part of the world, and his use of the words has the children smiling as they listen to the story.
For the purposes of our review, we did change one particular piece of slang, replacing a certain P word meaning angry or annoyed with one which wouldn't get our younger reviewers in trouble if they repeated the word at home!
The rest of the slang is all perfectly appropriate and had our young reviewers laughing as they listened to the tale of Kiwi and his good friend Roo.
While some of the pupils knew the meaning of phrases such as corker, long drop, boohai or spit the dummy, some didn't, and it was fun listening to them work out what the words might mean. Bruce's excellent storytelling meant they could soon work out the meaning of the new phrases as they fitted in the context of the book perfectly.
This book didn't just teach our young reviewers some localised slang, however, it also came with an important lesson as Roo had to perform CPR on his good friend Kiwi in this tale. At the end of the book, clear, beautifully illustrated instructions are contained, showing children how to perform this life saving skill. Along with the lesson came an important message, "you can do it".
Talking about the book after they listened to their teacher read it, Max Simmons, 7, and Ellaryce Caskey, 8, agreed it was a fun book to listen to. Both thought the phrase "spit the dummy" was one of the funniest in the book, and Ellaryce said she would like to read more about Kiwi and Roo's adventures together.
Max said he thought the book would make a good Christmas present for young children, while Ellaryce thought older children would also enjoy it as some of the words would challenge them 'and make them laugh".
Kiwi and Roo Can Do - By Bruce Newcomb is available for sale in Paper Plus, Stratford. Cash or cheque only please.