Nee Naw the Little Fire Engine product reviews

I'm a primary school teacher and this books is a massive hit with my class. Every single day I have at least one of the kids ask if we can read and sing it. There is a brilliant song that comes with the book and what I love is that all the kids sing on numerous occasions throughout the book "I'm Happy I'm Me". It's funny, catchy, and that is such a powerful affirmation for kids to be saying frequently. The story is about a little fire engine that the big shiny new engines laugh at.

He knows it doesn't matter what they say, he knows he's great just the way he is and sings "Nee Naw, Nee Naw, I'm A Little Fire Engine. Nee Naw, Nee Naw, I'm Happy I'm me. The it's easy to read and the illustrations are so vibrant and fun. The kids are always in fits of laughter when they have to pump water out of Granny's loo as well. It's the kind of book that you see fun little things in the illustrations each time you read it. We have the author coming to our school at the end of this year so the kids are really excited. I recommend this to any parent or teacher.

When it comes to children's books those which have CD's with them are always bound to be a hit, and when they feature either vehicles or animals they are even better it seems! When I took this along to the daycare centre I work at Miss 4 was excited to share this with her friends in the preschool room at mat time. The children, boys in particular loved this book and the fact that we had just recently had a fire drill at the centre made it great timing for such a book, as it opened up a whole world of conversations!

Listening to the CD for the first time it reminded me of the tune of the children's tv show's Paw Patrol and Bob the Builder, several of the other teacher's whom I work with also agreed. The music was fun to listen to and was very, very catchy it had us singing along in no time, especially with the "Nee Naw! Nee Naw!". Not only did the teachers enjoy this but so did the children this was a great sing along book with all ages. The music goes along well with the illustrations and it isn't to fast paced so it is easy to turn the pages to in time. Everybody loved this story other than one staff member who said she felt it was "an annoying story" as she didn't like how it got stuck in her head. One teacher loved it so much that she has ordered it for her son from the Scholastic book orders.

The pictures in the book are fun and full of character, especially Nee Naw the Little Fire Engine who has the cheesiest, happiest smile on his face all of the time, even though he is quite dented and unshaped compared to you usual fire trucks. This brings with it a special meaning that it is okay to be different and to be yourself just as Nee Naw is, when the other fire trucks see how Nee Naw saves the day they want to make him like them however Nee Naw doesn't want to be like them and says "i'm happy i'm me". I love how Nee Naw has a can do attitude and shows children that they can do anything they put their minds to no matter how big or small they are!

In the back cover of the book there are a list of fire safety tips which I felt was a great addition to the story as it is so important that we talk to the children about such things, as we read these we spoke to the children about whether they had fire escape plans at home, and we were happy to hear those that the children have at home.

All in all a great little book which the children and staff loved and one that I am happy to continue to read for some time to come, great for all age groups.

I thought the price was a little steep for a children's picture book, but then I realised there was an accompanying CD as well which completely changed my opinion. The other thing I had to change my mind about was the age range it was suitable for. I thought Miss Five, who has just started school, would be too old for it - but no, she was really into the colour illustrations, the storyline which emphasises that you should not judge anyone by their size, and the catchy song which follows the words in the story.

We started by reading the story through and looking at the illustrations. There were frequent pauses for us to look at the pictures and pick out Nee Naw from the gathering of fire engines. We talked about water putting out fires and how important it is to ensure there is a supply available for the fire trucks. Miss Five thought it was very funny when they had to get a backup water supply from the toilet, and said she hoped whoever used it last had flushed before leaving!

At the back of the book (inside the CD flap) is a list of fire safety tips that I thought were very useful and which Miss Five confirmed she already knew because they had discussed them at school as well. This meant her learning was reinforced in a fun way - a great way to get the message across to little ones. A five-year-old can be surprisingly sensible in an emergency situation if he or she has been well prepared.

After reading through the book, we put on the CD and listened to the song. It was great that the song words follow the words in the book, and on the second playing of the CD we were able to sing along with it - the melody is quite simple to follow and we picked it up very quickly. And if we made the odd mistake and sang a wrong note, there was nobody there to correct us! In terms of reading the words, Miss Five was able to pick out some of the simpler ones after these three sessions - especially words like "fire", 'happy" and "little" which recur throughout the text.

So after our session, both Miss Five and I like this book. She has already decided that, when she has grown out of it, she will pass it on to her two-year-old cousin so she can enjoy the song and learn about fire safety too.