Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori - Māori Language Week

We are happy to be celebrating Māori Language Week, especially as it has been 40 years since we started marking the occasion. This year's theme is 'Whāngaihia te reo Māori ki ngā mātua': helping parents to pass te reo on to their children. We've got some suggestions of some wonderful children's books that you could start with. There are few classics you just may recognise! 









A delightful, easy introduction to saying how you feel using te reo. Young and old alike will be able to describe whether they are feeling hoha (bored), makariri (cold), matekai (hungry) or simply tinopai rawe (fantastic)! A pronunciation guide in the back of the book gives new learners to te reo a simple guide to the language.

With the same lively, creative illustrations as the original book, the te reo Maori version retains the simplicity and imagination of Maurice Sendak's story, capturing Max's feisty character, the magic of the adventure and 'wild rumpus', and the pleasure of things returning to normal.

Ko Wai Kei Te Huna (Who's Hiding?)  Satoru Onishi 
Who's hiding? Who's crying? Who's backwards? Look carefully! Is it dog, tiger, hippo, zebra, bear, reindeer, kangaroo, lion, rabbit, giraffe, monkey, bull, rhino, pig, sheep, hen, elephant, or cat? Can you tell? Look again… 18 fun-loving animals can be found on each question-posing page, sending readers into an up-close, attention-to-detail discovery. This book is fantastic to read aloud, especially when you get to the final two pages: Who's who? Children learn the names of animals, to recognise expressions, colours, and how to count. Interactive fun for young children, or anyone learning te Reo Maori.
The Classic children's tale " The House that Jack Built" entirely in Te reo Maori with a unique interpretation relevant to New Zealand's history.

The book is reproduced as the original with its comic-strip-like illustrations by Maurice Sendak and the rhythmical, chanting te reo Maori telling the story of Mickey's dream of falling into cake mix and flying in a plane of bread dough to find milk for the cake batter.

With the same beautiful illustrations and dye cut pages as the original book, the te reo Maori translation retains the humour and quirky character of the little caterpillar and simplicity of the story.

This bright and entertaining book is a stimulating and lively word finder for beginner learners of Maori. Wonderfully detailed miniature model characters and objects provide interest in this picture word book. 
It's designed for Maori-speaking children and those studying Maori as a second language to provide a quick and enjoyable way to enrich learners' vocabulary. There are a number of hidden objects to find in every big scene. Also included is a pronunciation guide and an alphabetical Maori/English list of all the words in the book. 

A boisterous picture book full of noisy fun for machine-mad kids. Roadworks is made with machine-mad pre-school boys in mind, though girls will also love the exciting noise-words, rhythms and rhymes. Roadworks aims to differ from other machine books in that it shows an actual project being completed from start to finish, in this case, the building of a road.