kiwi

Movie Review: Footrot Flats: A Dog’s Tale.

Katie

Rattle your dags, boys and girls and feast your eyes on an oldie but a goodie Kiwi Classic and childhood favourite of mine that comes to the small screen in the form of Footrot Flats: A Dog’s Tale. Featuring the characters from the late Murray Ball’s “Footrot Flats” – New Zealands most beloved local cartoon strip.

image couresty of Amazon.com

Join Dog, Jess, Wal, Cooch, Horse, Major, Rangi, Pongo, Cheeky and “those bloody Murphys” , where Dog goes on ‘a journey of a thousand miles’, and an epic adventure. You will bear witness to his first encounter with the sexy Jess, his loyal devotion to Wal Footrot, whom he saves from a fate worse than death; his adventures with Horse, the cat with the barracuda jaw and fishhook claws; his brilliant cowardice and mighty nose, pitted against the dastardly schemes of the villainous Murphys, their hell hounds and the Croco Pigs.

This film will also keep you entertained and glued to the small screen. Not to mention it’s jam packed full of Kiwi words, sayings and slang and references to Kiwi culture! The soundtrack, by Dave Dobbyn is mind blowing filled with famous popular Kiwi classics such as Slice of Heaven and You Oughta to be in love. Overall this film is VERY FUNNY! I laughed all the way through, especially during the part where Wal is serenading Cheeky with a love ballad  aka You Oughta to be in love, (see youtube clip down below!), Dog gets ambushed by an army of rats and the battle to the death with the deadly croco-pigs!

A film that can be enjoyed by all ages and a great film to watch with the family over fish and chips on a Saturday night. 6/10 all the way!

 

Conservation Week 1st – 8th November

debbie

Conservation week is coming up and this year the theme is Healthy Nature, Healthy People. Check out all the great ideas for things to do and competitions to enter on the Department of Conservation website.

Besides finding out about events you can also find heaps of other information about our native plants and animals and how to save them. There is lots of little things we can do to help protect and save our environment.

I really like the section on attracting lizards into your garden. Did you know that we have more than 99 species of lizard in New Zealand. We also have many geckos and skinks and 33 of our skinks are found no where else in the world so it is really important that we learn how to protect them.

You can check out all the things you can do to attract them into your garden from the plants they like right through to building them a lizard house.

The library has heaps of great books on conservation as well – so slip, slop, slap and get out into the great outdoors and start saving.

6 new New Zealand and fairy tale non fiction just in time for winter.

Katie

Operation Nest Egg Chick.

“Deep down in a dark burrow, a father kiwi snorts and snuffles in his sleep. Underneath him , a large creamy egg lies snug and safe from pilfering predators.” Read more in Operation Nest Egg Chick, a creative non-fiction story about a BNZ Operation Nest Egg chick. Each page features beautiful illustrations, photographs and text boxes about how kiwis are being saved. A must have read!

 

Snow White : 4 beloved tales.

Retells the classic German version of Snow White, together with three similar tales–Marigo of the Forty Dragons from Albania, The unnatural mother and the girl with a star on her forehead from Mozambique, and The magic needle from Turkey

 

 

Rapunzel : 3 beloved tales.

Retells the classic German tale of Rapunzel in the tower, along with the similar tales of Clotilde from the Philippines, and Petrosinella from Italy.

 

 

 

Little Red Riding Hood Stories Around the World: 3 Beloved Tales.

Retells the classic German version of the fairy tale of a girl and a wolf, along with similar tales from Italy and Taiwan.

 

 

 

Alice‘s food A-Z : edible adventures.

Written by Alice Zaslavsky – one-time Masterchef contestant and the host of TV quiz show Kitchen Whizz, this book contains information about all the things you ever wanted to know about food… and some things you probably didn’t. Packed to the brim with funny food facts, clever cooking tips and kidfriendly recipes, this is a book for the fact-hungry, food-obsessed or those who like to mess about in the kitchen. A great book to have on hand, especially with winter around the corner.

 

 

New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame : 25 Kiwi champions.

This book features information about 25 famous New Zealand sportspeople across a wide range of different sporting disciplines. Includes a caricature, an action photograph, a profile of the person, timeline, inspirational quote, description of the sport, training regime and trophy board. One book you must read!