Home > Categories > Books > Kids - General > The Kiwi Hokey Tokey review
Down in a gully on a farm far away,
a clan of kiwi put on a dance display,
invited friends to join, one sunny day,
to do the Hokey Tokey, and here's how to play...
New Zealand animals of all shapes and sizes come together to do the Kiwi Hokey Tokey.
• A playful, familiar, catchy song, with lots of actions for kids to perform
• Lyrics sung by popular entertainer, Pio Terei, in English and in Maori. Guitar-only version also included for children to sing to by themselves
• Vibrant illustrations by Stevie Mahardhika
• Full of iconic NZ native animals, hilariously depicted
Product reviews...
I'm such a sucker for kids books and when they are New Zealand themed, well even better. The Kiwi Hokey Tokey takes a classic song that we all know and love teaming it up with creatures you'll only find on our beautiful shores. As soon as I opened the KIWIreviews parcel this was the item my one year old son went straight to.I think you're never too old or too young to enjoy a kids book and I for one want to give my son a love of reading as early as possible.
The book is filled with clever and witty plays on the Hokey Tokey and gorgeous bright illustrations. It also comes with a bonus CD which really makes the book come alive. This may not be a story for before bed, it's a little too exciting for that but that's totally fine. Instead it's a book which allows you to have fun, to dance around like a fool in front of your child and have a few giggles.
If you're looking for a gift for a child's Birthday or for a kiwi friend or relative overseas you can't go past this one for being a winner. I know it will be a loved and treasured one on our book shelf for many years to come.
I was extremely excited to find this book was available for review, I had already purchased both 'If you're a Kiwi and you know it!' and '10 Kooky Kiwi's' after seeing them in the shops and after reading the great reviews that they got from KIWIreviews so I knew that this book was well worth adding to my collection of Kiwi CD books.
I took these to work to share with the children who were beyond excited when I showed them the back cover of their 2 other favourite books sung by Pio Terei and told them that he also sung this book. One of our favourite songs to sing and dance to during mat times is the Hokey Tokey so this bound to become a hit, as it took an old favourite and added a special twist to it. Everybody gathered on the mat and we turned on the CD ready to go, the first time round we listened to the CD and turned the pages, which captured everybody's attention due to them being so bright, bold and colourful. The next time we played the CD again but this time I encouraged the children and teachers to stand in a circle so that we could do the Kiwi Hokey Tokey as the song played. This was so much fun and there was fits of laughter from everybody as we re-enacted the book pretending to be all of the different animals. The fact the scene is set "down in a gully on a farm far away" was awesome as my centre is in the country amongst farmland and we infact do have a gully we like to go and explore.
My Miss 3 is a huge fan of this book and since receiving it she has been asking each day to listen to the music, either with, or without the book so that she can do the Kiwi Hokey Tokey at home. She has so much fun doing this pretending to be different animals and exploring her body through music and dance, I have to say I have joined in with this several times and if always gets us laughing. I love how this book encourages active movement in such a fun way!
This is such a beautiful book, it really is I love that the animals used in the book are so happy, and smiley and look to be having such a lot of fun, best of all the images really reflect New Zealand and our beautiful green country with animals such as Kiwi, Pukeko, Kea, and Sheep throughout. Not only is this book written in English, it is also written in Te Reo, something I love seeing in children's books as I feel it is really important to teach children about. The lyrics sung by Pio Terei are amazing as usual, with the tune super catchy and fun to listen to and join in with, the only thing I don't particularly like so much is the added phrases as each animal in the story changes and goes on to do the Hokey Tokey such as "Kia ora, Pukeko. Your turn!" I just feel that this kind of is unnecessary and in a way disrupts the book.
An amazing book that I guarantee would be a hit with your children at home and also those in childcare, my Centre manager, and the other staff I work with loved it so much that we have already gone out and got another copy to keep at work.
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