Where's Kiwi?: Around the World Book 2 product reviews

When I signed up to review the Where's Kiwi - Around the World, I thought it would be the perfect find-a book for our 4 year old daughter. She loves books where you have to find different things, and I always wanted the Where's Wally books but never got them. Well what I didn't expect was how addicted the book would be for me!!

Each page is a different city from around the world - Sydney, Agra, Giza, Paris and more!! The little kiwi can be found on every page, along with Sporty Sheep, Gumboot Guy, Wacky Wizard and Tricky Tuatara (my daughter now knows what a tuatara is!), and they aren't that easy to find as I found quite a few of them challenging. Then to step it up a notch, at the back of the book there are more items to find, personalised to each page. Such as koala bears in Sydney, the Queen in London, croissants in Paris and mummies in Giza.

The illustrations are superb; the pages are so busy but very clear so with some concentration, each person/character/image pops out from the page allowing you to find each item. It has kept our daughter occupied since we got the book a few days ago!

We are very happy to have this book added to our library, to go with The 12 Days of Kiwi Christmas and We Wish you a Kiwi Christmas from the same author/illustrator. We can't wait to find the original Where's Kiwi illustrated book so the fun can continue! This book has entertained the 4 year old up until the 54 year old! Now I'm off to go find everything so I can help the 4 year old tomorrow...

When I received this book, I just knew that it would be perfect for Mr 5 for Christmas. He has a keen interest in places around the world and also in searching for things in a book. Every part of me just wanted to give it to him to enjoy RIGHT NOW! With the present idea in mind, I simply couldn't let him help me to review it! What a shame, I had to enjoy the book all by myself (or with a bit of help)!

Each double page spread is dedicated to a different place in the world. The idea is to find the kiwi in each illustration. The pages are like 'Where's Wally' books and there are people and things EVERYWHERE! I opened the first page, I looked and I looked and I couldn't find the kiwi anywhere. I thought that that page might be hard, so I tried the next page! Still no luck! My mother in law turned up and she sat down with me. She is equally determined when it comes to things like this. It took her a while but she finally found the kiwi. I have got to say that I was disappointed that she found it first but relieved that it was actually possible to find them! I bet Mr 5 will be quicker than we were! After she found the kiwi on the first page, it got a bit easier. We were becoming a bit addicted though, as we both had to leave the house to do errands and were finding it hard to pull ourselves away from the book.

I liked the fact that the initial idea is to find the kiwi on each page. There are also other characters to be found on each page. This allows for either competitions between different people to find their character first or, as an alternative, for the reader to find more items - e.g., go right through the book and find the kiwis, then do it again looking for different items. Further to that, there is a list of items at the back of the page which can also be found on each page. This all allows the reader to get a lot more mileage out of each page in the book.

This book is great for children to exercise a number of skills including tracking with their eyes, determination, searching and concentration. It would be fabulous for a child who hasn't been so successful with reading words but can still gain great enjoyment out of a book, while still developing essential reading skills.

This would make a fabulous coffee table book for our family at the bach. I could imagine groups of us sitting down in the evening around the coffee table having competitions to see who can find the kiwi first! The adults would get just as competitive as the children.

Yes - Mr 5 will get this book for Christmas and I would highly recommend it to other parents too. I think that it is a gift that we can really enjoy together. It is a book which will be revisited and shared many times over.