Originally published in 1955, this is a 60th anniversary edition of a celebrated NZ picture book in the bestselling series by Avis Acres. By re-releasing the title, the story is being brought to a new generation of kiwi children.
I’m liking
The retro pictures are truly gorgeous, and I like the way they have little captions that relate the story directly to the illustration. The book is a nice, sturdy padded hardback so it should be pretty durable.
It’s an adventure story, of how two little pohutukawa flowers go floating down a stream and enjoy many aspects of NZ flora and fauna along their way, with the odd potentially dangerous character thrown in. Lots of dialogue makes for a good read-aloud tale, especially if you can master a number of voices.
Things that made me go hmmmm
To be honest, I find reading the story a little labourious. It is wordy and the equivalent of a chapter book, presented in picture book format.
The conclusion
Best suited to around the 6-9 year old bracket, smaller children will probably find it a difficult story to follow – but those who love an adventure will enjoy this story. I’m sure many grandparents will remember this tale, and be able to relate to the good old days of free-roaming the New Zealand countryside, so long as they reported in to their parents at tea time :).
