There once was a boy called Jack. A small girl greets him every morning on the way to school. “Kia ora.”

“Ka kite,” she says every day on her way home.

‘Where did you learn to speak like that?’ asks Jack, not knowing he is soon to be on his own journey of learning te reo…

from people young and old,

a brave soldier,

birds, and the grass between his toes, and more…

When he finally returns home to what he always thought was a nothing-special-happens kind of street, his eyes are open to a whole new world which was there all the time.

I love the way this boy decides to ask a question about the words he is hearing around him. He asks more questions and learns more and more te reo along his journey.

The illustrations in this bilingual picture book are bright and clear, but the translations are not shown in the traditional way of directly under the te reo or on the opposite page. Look carefully and you will see them weaving through a jersey, curling along a grass blade or even spoken by a fish!

It’s a fun way to find and learn what the te reo means on each page.

Author – Glenn Colquhoun

Picture Book

(2021, Old King Press, NZ, Maori Language, te reo, Asking Questions, Finding out, Meeting people, Seeing your surroundings, Discovering another world)