Reviewed by Dr S Alexander

Te Whare is suitable as an educational picture book for toddlers as well as being useful as an early reader for children of school age.   

Written in te reo Maori it introduces vocabulary for furnishings within a home such as chair, table and cupboard.

The power of Te Whare lays as much within the illustrations that children will easily relate to as it does to the lovely repetitive text and page-turning rhythm. The story follows an infant crawling through a home and notes the household objects discovered. 

Te Whare is a great little book to read from start to finish and just perfect for a joint story session with one or two children.

The final two pages provide a glossary of the objects and a corresponding picture for each. 

To extend children who are learning to read, kaiako could photocopy these two pages and cut and paste the pictures and words onto little cards, to create a game of matching word to picture. 

My only concern with the book is the glue binding and the risk of pages coming loose after the book has been opened and stretched several times. But it’s nothing that clear tape can’t fix when this happens.

I’d like to see Te Whare made available in the future as a big book also, for teachers to use at mat-times and for story sessions with groups of children.

Publisher:  One Tree House (www.onetree-house.com)
Format:  Paperback:  24 pages
ISBN: 9780473397074 
Published:  2018
Price $20
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