Keep Fit Kiwi: Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes product reviews

I wanted this book for a couple of reasons - the first being my seven year old daughter is at that stage where she loves to read and sing and to get both at the same time is a bonus. The second, both of my girls do martial arts and various other activities and they need to be on the go at all time so I thought this could be fun for the whole family to do. Also recently they had a competition of heads, shoulders, knees and toes at there school and so I thought this could help them in time to come. They also had a quick competition at martial arts a couple weeks back - extremely funny to watch. Thirdly I love the pictures in these books, truly I am fascinated by them they are just amazing.

As soon as I took the KIWIreviews picture a little hand reached down and grabbed the book and she disappeared to her room - next minute I heard 'there's a CD' then the music started and that is all I heard for the rest of the night - just this CD playing constantly - the English version, the Maori version and then the instrumental versions - luckily she gave up on the instrumental version and instead just played the two singing ones. After a week of her playing off and on I have taken the CD and hidden it just to get a break from it all.

As for the book and the pictures it does not disappoint. It has the zany colourful words scattered throughout the pages which are all so bright and breathtaking. The pictures are amazing just like I hoped they would be. They are just so lovely I could stare at them all day long. There are two lizards which appear on every page and it became our new game at first to find the lizards all except on one of the Te Reo Maori page there is only the green lizard which had us scratching our heads. I do like the page where they are all 'resting' the whole thing just screams cute to me.

I also like how it is written in both versions as both the girls learn Te Reo Maori at school and having it written out for them is perfect. As they are learning to spell various words this could help them out in times to come.

A book that my youngest absolutely adores. I love the book but unfortunately not sold on the CD but maybe because I have heard it non stop for over a week now. Still its a very fun addition to our home library and one that is giving us some laughter watching my daughter doing the actions.

I really think the twins' mother was more excited than the girls were when I brought this book around and asked them to help me review it. Included in the back cover is a CD with four tracks - one each with the lyrics in English and Maori, and two others with just the accompaniment so the children can sing along. The reason for her excitement? She has always had difficulty singing this in Maori; it can be quite fiddly because the words can pose a challenge when you try to fit them to the music. But the CD version is ideal. She can now sing along with it and check that she has it right, and the girls can join in too!

So, we started with the Maori version - the words are printed part way through the book, and they match Track 2. But what is really useful is that the vocalist (Pio Terei) calls out words of encouragement every so often to make sure everyone is trying her best. This does not happen in the English version! For the twins, who are growing up bilingual, and their little sister, this is all they need to ensure they sing as loudly and energetically as they can! The words are printed in lovely clear script, so they can read along or just listen.

Next, we went back to the beginning and looked at the English version. There were more pictures in this section and the text was spaced out, although the twins both said they preferred the Maori version because the English part was too long! Little ones like repetition to a point, but even five-year-olds have their limits and they lose concentration if things go on for too long. At the same time, although some of the pictures were identical, others were not. For their little sister, however, it did not matter which language the page displayed; she was more interested in the colours.

As an action song, it is great fun to sing and move to. It helps little ones to identify parts of their bodies in both languages and also helps them to learn the similarities between animal bodies and human. They loved the picture of all the animals snoozing after their challenging workout, especially the little geckos curled up beside the alpaca - this was one of the pictures that was identical in both sections of the book. They loved, too, Hemi Rapeti as he jumped over the heap of other animals. In the Maori version it appears on one page, but in the English version it takes up four pages with a lot more detail added. And Hemi Rapeti has become Jim Bunny!

The consensus from the twins was that they loved the illustrations and the catchy action song. Being already familiar with the tune helped of course. And they relished the idea of looking at the pictures as they sang along. Their little sister was just as enthusiastic; she tries to keep up with them whenever possible so when they like something she is bound to like it too. They will have lots of pleasure from the book and cd in the weeks to come.