Pipi Dance product reviews

I was born near the sea, and spent much of my childhood in our bach near Auckland. At low tide, everyone would be out on the flats gathering kai moana and bringing it back to cook on the driftwood fire - although, if we were hungry, we would simply crack the shells open and eat the contents raw. Either way they tasted wonderful, salty and gritty with sand and full of flavour. At "our" beach, the main harvest was cockles. Small, sweet, and so versatile. We would put them in fritters, serve them on bread and butter after marinating them in vinegar, or just eat them as they were. Cooked, raw, pickled - any way was good! Pipi were less common, but at the next beach along the coast (round the rocks!) they were plentiful so we were spoiled for choice. There was other shellfish available as well, but these were the two most prolific in that area. (In those days, the word "pollution" did not exist!)

This book brought all those wonderful memories back. The feel of the warm seawater tickling our bare feet as we wriggled our toes in the mud to locate the shellfish beds, the sore backs from too much bending over, and the giggles when one of the shellfish squirted you in the face as it quickly retreated into its shell. Then there was the occasional hermit crab that had discovered an empty shell and moved into it. Although the crabs were relatively harmless, they would still give us a fright if we picked one up accidentally.

The children both loved the story. The illustrations were perfect, evocative of the seaside with its green and blue themes. Miss Four liked the repetition and the rhyming structure, and thought the pipi dance really brought the beach to life. She said she would do that at the beach too, paddling and feeling the sand between her toes, and jiggling around to stir it up so she could reach the shellfish beneath.

It was good to see everyday Maori words included in the text - whanau, kai, puku - as this makes the story uniquely Kiwi. In her own family, Miss Four is learning new words in Te Reo - her koro is studying Maori language, so she has enjoyed working with him to acquire new language skills. It is many years since I learned to speak Te Reo as a child, but I still remember the thrill of being able to understand and communicate in our first language. It was nearly lost, so seeing it taking its place once more as a taonga and a vital part of our heritage is excellent. Getting kai moana yourself rather than buying it in a shop is a part of our heritage too; it is a matter of pride to become a hunter and provide for the whanau.

Mr Two enjoyed the pictures, following along with the story with only minor lapses in attention. He responds well to stories that rhyme, as do many children of this age. The predictive rhythm appeals to their musical sense, helping them to anticipate what is coming next once they have heard the story several times. In this book, several lines are repeated over and over; this too helps to hold little ones' attention as they hear familiar patterns recurring. And of course, children are natural wrigglers so the idea of wriggling and shuffling makes perfect sense - they can get up and move around each time they listen to the shuffle-rhyme chorus!

My wee family lives in a small coastal town and my children and I will quite frequently go for a walk and visit one of the two beaches we have close by. It is not uncommon for us to end up going into the water and looking for the various species of shellfish that we have on offer, in particular pipis, mussels and cockles. While browsing KIWIreviews I spied 'Pipi Dance" and knew instantly that this book would be relevant to my children. but also, that it would be a much-loved addition to our small school's library.

The cover illustration is absolutely stunning, the amount of detail that the illustrator has managed to capture with the waves that look real, the items in the water and the people shows talent and thought, I had high hopes the images in the book would be just as impressive. Upon opening the book to start reading we were not let down, the illustrator has a keen eye for detail and has shown this on every page, my son in particular liked the crab that looked like it was smiling, and then when it had bitten the poor boy.

The first page we are introduced to the two main characters, who are a mother and her son, the son asks if he can help the mum and then on the next page, we find out that he wants to help her gather some kaimoana for their family, in particular they were searching for cockles and pipi for tea. The storyline focuses on how to find the shellfish under the sand, and the author has made a catchy song to a dance called the Happy Pipi dance, which gives the instructions for effectively finding the shellfish.
The son follows his mums' instructions but during his hunt he meets a crab - on the end of his fingers, aside from this sure enough in no time they had plenty to feed everyone.
The next day the shellfish is cooked over a fire and shared with Nan and Koro, at the end of the story the son is teaching one of his little friends the Happy Pipi dance so they can gather a feed too!

I loved everything about this book, the illustrations are perfect, and the storyline flows nicely and matches the images on the page. My favourite sentence from the book is "When you gather kai together and you cook it up to share, it's a way to show each other how much you really care." My children were fans of the story also and have now incorporated the dance when they hunt for pipis down at our local beach, I look forward to sharing this book with our local primary school.