Why Tashi?
The best reason for reading Tashi with your children is simply that children love him! Enjoying one book will motivate children to read or listen to more.
Tashi's adventures have been enthralling kids in Australia and round the world for over a decade. See what Australian kids have said about Tashi here.
Tashi embodies cheekiness, cleverness, a sense of adventure and a love of storytelling and tall tales.
Friendship and family are very important to Tashi.
Children will spend hours looking at Kim Gamble's beautiful, detailed illustrations and imagining themselves in Tashi's world.
The books are inspired by different cultures and mythologies, giving a real depth to Tashi's world.
Which Kids?
Tashi books are fantastic to read with boys as well as girls.
The books are wonderful for reading aloud and also suit newly confident readers and even older kids. We receive lovely reviews from fans as young as 4 to as old as 12!
The books do feature 'baddies' – dragons, robber barons, ogres and so on – and some kids will find these more frightening than others do. You know your own children best, and will be best able to judge when they're ready to meet these characters. Tashi triumphs at the end of each story, and they finish with a comforting sense that all is right with the world.
For reading aloud
Anna Fienberg's rich language is wonderful for reading aloud (have fun with the sounds of the character's names and all the descriptive words).
Each individual Tashi book contains 2 short, self-contained stories, so you can read them at separate times.
Once you've read the book with your children, they will probably want to spend some time looking at the pictures on their own, absorbing all the wonderful details and remembering the story.
For reading alone
The language and storylines become progressively more complex as the series goes on, so start younger kids off with Once There was a Boy Called Tashi (the full-colour picture book), Tashi or Tashi and the Giants.
Reading more
If you'd like to find out about other books by Anna Fienberg and/or Kim Gamble, please visit the Allen & Unwin website.
