{"id":23012,"date":"2025-09-15T03:45:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T03:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/23012\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T03:45:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T03:45:06","slug":"kiwi-publisher-aims-to-help-raise-one-million-bilingual-children-te-ao-maori-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/23012\/","title":{"rendered":"Kiwi publisher aims to help raise one million bilingual children \u2013 Te Ao M\u0101ori News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">This article was first published by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/te-manu-korihi\/573054\/te-wiki-o-te-reo-maori-kiwi-publisher-aims-to-help-raise-one-million-bilingual-children\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/te-manu-korihi\/573054\/te-wiki-o-te-reo-maori-kiwi-publisher-aims-to-help-raise-one-million-bilingual-children\">RNZ<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">A new children\u2019s book publisher has the goal to help raise one million bilingual tamariki over the next decade.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The bilingual book range Poppy and Buddy wants to make te reo M\u0101ori a joyful experience for kiwi kids aged 1-6 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re proud to be part of a growing movement to normalise Te Reo in everyday life,\u201d founder Jeff Brown said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cAs a new publisher, we\u2019re starting small, but thinking big. Our goal is to make te reo M\u0101ori a natural and fun part of children\u2019s early years, in homes and childcare centres right across the motu.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Launched in 2024, the Auckland-based publisher\u2019s debut series of books supports early literacy and language development through engaging stories in English and te reo M\u0101ori.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Each book in the Poppy and Buddy series has a QR code that links directly to native-speaker audio, making it easier for parents and educators to read confidently in both languages.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Poppy Panda and Buddy Bear can also tell the story in Mandarin, Spanish, and French.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">According to StatsNZ, there were 213,849 reo M\u0101ori speakers in 2023, up from 185,955 in 2018.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Bilingualism has been shown to improve memory, attention, and problem-solving skills.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cLanguage is a bridge to each other, to culture, and to opportunity. And bilingualism is one of the greatest gifts we can give our tamariki.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Brown is inviting families, teachers, and centres to join them on their mission.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Jacqueline Harding, former Head Teacher at Arrowtown Preschool, said tamariki were \u201csuper engaged, tracking the pages, and sharing observations\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/radionz.us6.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=211a938dcf3e634ba2427dde9&amp;id=b3d362e693\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article was first published by RNZ A new children\u2019s book publisher has the goal to help raise&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[489,156,23753,111,139,69,22319],"class_list":{"0":"post-23012","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-maori","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-te-reo-maori"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}