Kiwicorn product reviews

I absolutely love the books Kat Mereweather has produced about Kuwi the Kiwi not only are all the illustrations absolutely stunning but the stories are a delight to children too, with the loveable kiwi character that makes it uniquely NZ and the clever wording. This book is no exception, again the illustrations are beautiful and the way the book is written is simple yet keeps you interested in the story, a great reader for young children to read to themselves or to be read aloud.

My 5 year old got a lof of enjoyment out of me reading him the story and the simple format allowed him to quickly figure out how to read it himself and in turn read it to his new baby sister. The story of Kiwicorn is great for young children to hear about how being yourself is important, that we are all unique and that is a good thing. Just like kiwicorn does things their own way it is important that children do themselves and be proud to be who they are!

This is such a great message so I was delighted to see it written in this clever way with the Kiwicorn book. I would recommend this book to all my friends and I think it would be great to share in an early childhood or school setting as a teacher I can see the strengths this book would offer in teaching children about this special message.

In my life, I have always tried to live by the rule that I am who I am, and to live my life the way that feels right to me. However, in this age of social media, it is so easy for young people to be swept into the vortex of feeling like they have to look, sound or act a certain way to go places in life. That is why I was so excited to see that Kat Merewether had produced a new book called Kiwicorn - a little bird who is proud to be who they are. I knew that this message was something I really wanted to promote with my daughter, and so I was thrilled to receive a copy to review.

This book, from start to finish, is all about being 'an utterly unique individual' (to quote directly). Kiwicorn comes from the author who produced Kuwi the Kiwi, and in a similar fashion, the story is clever, lighthearted and uniquely Kiwi, whilst also promoting a very important message. Kat has done a fantastic job of choosing words and phrases which children easily engage with, and probably see large similarities with themselves, and acknowledging that it is absolutely ok to be/ see/ feel that. What an amazingly powerful message to hear whilst growing up. My husband is a primary school teacher and will be taking the book into his class to do some work around, such as the positive message it provides in an easy to digest and comfortable way.

The book is a beautiful quality hard-back volume. The pages are nice and thick with a slight gloss, which means that they are very resilient to being read over and over again. It has quickly become our daughter's favourite book- her loving seeing what Kiwicorn is doing, and me loving the message which the book is providing.

Kat's attention to detail really is stunning. From the beautiful personalisation she had drawn in the front cover of the book for me, to the illustrations, I seem to see something new each time I read it. The illustrations themselves are perfect- adding extra layers of detail to those already powerful words. Some are sweet, some are downright hilarious, but all add something extra to the words, rather than detract, which is pretty impressive.

This book will be one of those ones which we will continue to come back to forever. It is thoughtfully written, beautifully illustrated, and so readable and relatable. It conveys what, to me, is one of the most important lessons that I can teach my children - that uniqueness is something to be treasured. I would go so far as to say that it is a modern classic, and I'm sure that the lessons it provides will remain with my daughter forever. Thank you Kat for helping to make uniqueness so acceptable, and for helping to bring to life one of my favourite Dr Seuss quotes 'Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind'.

Miss 4 is the biggest Kuwi the Kiwi Fan so when I saw that Kat Merewether had released a new book 'Kiwicorn' I knew it was one that we needed to add to our collection, the plan was to buy this for her for Christmas, but luckily for her Christmas came early when we received this book for review. With Miss 4 being a tad unicorn obsessed at the moment she was absolutely delighted to see that 2 of her most favourite characters Kiwi's and Unicorns had been intertwined together to create the gorgeous character that is known as the 'Kiwicorn'.

Once Miss 4 saw the book there was no putting it down, we must have read it at least 5 times in one go and then another 2 times over as her bedtime story that night, which seems to have become a bit of a recurrence since receiving it, as it is currently on rotation with her other Kuwi books, she absolutely loves them and as a parent and a early childhood teacher so do I!!! The Kiwicorn has been a hit at work with the other children and teachers who love to read the book, it is so popular that we got the centre it's very own copy to enjoy. I knew of many parents who have begun collecting the Kuwi the Kiwi series at their homes and they have been very excited to hear of the Kiwicorns release!

Reading the book is an absolute delight, I absolutely love the beautiful bold pastel coloured pages and how each of the double pages is a different colour to the next, having these colours as the background really makes the gorgeous, whimsical and cute Kiwi characters stand out on the pages, everything is just so beautifully illustrated right from the images themselves to the layout and the fonts used, it seems that this is one of those great books that no matter how many times you read it over it never gets old and there is always a new little illustration to notice the next time whether it be the worm on the kiwi's beak or the very funny uni-corn cycle.

Most importantly this book portrays such an important message throughout it, that everyone is unique and different in their own way. As a parent I feel that this is one of the most important messages that you can teach your child that everyone is different and that that is okay, especially in today's society where there is such a focus on what the perfect person should be like. This book promoted such a lot of discussion between Miss 4 and myself and it still does now, she loves it when I share with her some of her talents which she has which are similar to those of the Kiwi-corn, and also others that I feel she has that the Kiwicorn may not. The words used are empowering and encourage lot's of discussions also in regards to what they mean such as the words sassy, whiffy and flamboyant and Miss 4 has loved learning about these, are a great way to extend her vocabulary.

Without a doubt this is going to be a very treasured book in our collection for a long time to come, Kat Merewether you are amazing such a natural illustrator and author and we can't wait to see your next book.

This is the first story I have read from Kat Merewether and I am impressed and moved. For a story that contains not a lot of words, it really packs a punch and gets its point across very well which is to be comfortable with who you are and accept what you have. This is a great story that I am very pleased my children have had the opportunity to read and understand as it teaches great morals and values. The colour scheme is great throughout the book with the different colour backgrounds for each setting and packed with awesome illustrations bursting with vibrant colours.

I liked the tongue in cheek humour within the illustrations with subtle hints of jokes. One that my kids can easily say is their favourite is a picture of Kiwicorn holding a jar labelled "Rare Kiwicorn farts" with a tag saying "For you". It's the little things that count and this book is filled with them down to the point that even the barcode on the back of the book is shaped within the Kiwicorns horn (shown in photo). Being a story that is fairly quick to get through it can be read over and over which my children have requested. I was also pleased to read that twenty cents from every purchase is donated to Kiwis for kiwi and at $19.99 I believe that is a great cost for such a splendid New Zealand book.

They say first impressions last and this is very much the case here for me. I am interested in reading the other kiwi stories from Kat Merewether and love the fact she did both text and illustrations. The kids also loved the addition of the built-in mirror at the end of the story. I highly recommend this story to all parents with younger children and would love to see this as a mandatory book in all kindergartens and early entrant classes in schools.

I was so excited to see I got to review Kiwicorn by Kat Mereweather. I love her books, especially as they are made in New Zealand. And I wasn't disappointed when we started reading it. It was just as wonderful as the Kuwi books, with the illustrations just as special and intriguing as the Kuwi's Creative Colouring Book which has been going strong in our house for months with both myself and my oldest daughter.

I loved the story with all the different descriptions and personalities of Kiwicorn that are explained, with so many varieties in them. My 2 girls, aged 6 years and 2 years old, are very different and reading this we would pick out together their personalities and read how it makes them wonderful, just as it does with Kiwicorn. As 2 young girls, with the 6 year old especially, I found this very valuable in teaching them what makes them unique and wonderful, and what makes them lovable and what they can love about themselves.

The bright and whimsical illustrations really represent the story of how I read it to be: an upbeat portrayal of a fun-loving and unique Kiwicorn which really depict Kiwi kids. Its the details in everything that makes the book a complete package. From the fun 'this book belongs to' label, to the consistent use of the same rainbow bright and pastel colours, to even using the Kiwicorn's horn as the barcode at the back.

A kids book that I can not fault and will be recommending and buying for birthdays! The price of around $20 is very reasonable, especially for a hard covered book which will last with kids. As well as being New Zealand Made, it's the perfect book present that I would buy for both my girls ages. I know of many unicorn loving kids who would love this book!

Miss Five is a Kat Merewether fan through and through. She loves Kuwi and all the other magical characters in the books, and now that she is learning to read she is not always dependent on other people to read to her. When I saw this new title, I told her about it, but explained that I would be asking the twins to review it with me. They are a couple of years younger, and bent on being individuals so that people don't lump them together. Miss Five asked if she could just look at it before I took it away. It has a sturdy board cover so I thought that would not do any harm.

Well, so much for my plans! Miss Five is fully into unicorns and once she had looked at the first page she had bonded with the book. She assured me that she is strong, sassy and smart just like Kiwicorn. Her brother had helped her to read the words on that page, and that was it. There was no way the twins were going to review it first. She was determined!

So we read on together, and as we turned each page, Miss Five became more and more excited. "Just like me!" she kept saying. "Kiwicorn is just like me!" And yes, she was right. Miss Five is stroppy. She has her own ideas and has wonderful powers of concentration for a small child. She knows what she wants, and she will go hard to get it. Although she loved all the artwork, her favourite picture was the one depicting Kiwicorn standing on one leg on top of his empty shell, looking incredibly proud of himself. (Or herself - neither Miss Five nor I could work out whether Kiwicorn was a boy or a girl, but agreed that it didn't really matter.)

So much for the book being too young for a five-year-old. By the time I left to go home, it had been read at least seven times. By the fifth time through, just when the rest of us had all had at least one turn reading to her and were starting to wonder when she would tire of it, Miss Five had learned all the words and was happily reading it aloud to herself. She had also discovered the mirror at the back of the book and each time she reached it she said "Just like me!" as she admired herself.

And the twins? Suffice to say that Miss Five has generously agreed that they can read it too when we next see them. I am sure that they will enjoy it just as much and will see themselves in the "weird" little Kiwicorn. I can't wait to read it to them. Or maybe I will get Miss Five to read it to them instead. I am sure she would love to do that.