This is a smile-inducing read from Michael Panzer that will likely be enjoyed by littler ones. Three martial arts-loving Kangaroos need to work together and use their differing talents and strengths to help a fellow marsupial in need. The underlying messages are great, the illustrations full of fun and interest. The story itself scans well and is fairly straightforward; perhaps could have had a little more zing or wordplay in the prose - so will likely be most enjoyed by the younger of the young kiddos.

I appreciate very much this book for children... We teach us that if we are in danger we must work together and don't make by itself

Michael Panzner is back with another thrilling tale for the little ones. From the very beginning, Michael Panzner’s, The Taekwonderoos: Rescue at Rattling Ridge is an inviting read. Brianna greets the reader and asks them to come along for the adventure. The dedication is sweet as the book goes out to friends of the Taekwonderoos, no matter who, what or where they are. All the while, the reader gets to experience the exquisite artwork of Lara Look depicting scenes of the Australian outback. Considering these are predominantly dessert scenes, Look has selected a superb color palette that is realistically colorful and brings Panzner’s words to life.

‘So, who are the Taewonderoos?’, you might ask. They are three kangaroos, George, Brianna, and Jackson, with not only their own individual special talents, but masters of taekwondo too. Whilst out practicing, they hear a distress call. Discovering it belongs to a young Joey in the far distance, they must race against time to save the young roo. Can they use their skills, and if so, how? Will it even make a difference, and if so, how?

On the pages where there is text, it is often written against the backdrop of a cloud, or at least in the sky. This is visually pleasing, consistent, and easy to read. It is also above the main action depicted in the illustrations. Where there isn’t text, the pictures are stimulating and depict motion both in what is presented but also by leading into the events that come next. The text is appropriate for the younger members of the audience it is aimed at, but I wonder if 7–8-year-olds would prefer a slightly more challenging text. Either way, the characters are fun and unique and make martial arts sound both interesting and glamorous. There is a good balance between narrative and dialogue, and it is particularly great to hear the characters speak their ideas on how to tackle their tasks and what they have learned from their experience.

This book is well placed in a school, library, playgroup, or home. It’s one that is best served for carpet time/daytime reading as it might be a little long for a bedtime story for a tired three-year-old. The numerous pages of pictures also control the flow of the story and provide many instances to pause for thought, reflection, and discussion. My six-year-old was fond of the story and enjoyed the characters. We both noted that we hadn’t read stories about kangaroos before and that other animals were more commonplace. As a child that practices martial arts, he also thought it was really cool to think about how he might use his own talents. Seeing him engaged and interested, whilst experiencing his inquisitive nature towards this book solidified my belief that the book is a 5 out of 5. This is not a difficult book to fall in love with and children are certain to want to read this again, and again. If he’s not there already, Panzner should be on your watchlist when looking out for picture books. His imagination is relevant for this category of reading material, and he does well to incorporate and model good morals in his work in a way that is fun.

This was okay.
I was kinda excited about kangaroos being adorable with some taekwondo moves.
The story was a little ridiculous and unbelievable, but the kiddos didn't seem to mind.
Maybe it's just silly to an adult?
In any case it seemed to go over well and I am excited to share it with my other niblings.
Thanks to NetGalley & Michael Panzner for sending me a copy of this one.

Cute little story of three Kangaroo taekwondo masters that are faced with a challenge that took them working together, keeping calm and playing to each of their individual strengths to achieve the dangerous task safely.

Well, this was close to gorgeous but was so close to not working. The story is of three black belt kangaroos, and their efforts to rescue a joey stuck inexplicably up a cliff-face. What it entails is them building a whole mahoosive bridge in unlikely fashion (because the joey got up there how…?), doing this, doing that, facing equally unexplained rockfalls always coming their way – it sounds like the plot of a 1980s hand-held console game, and that all it needs is a gorilla chucking barrels of princesses at them or something. What it results in is the most sickly, cloying and OTT 'lesson' where the 'roos discuss the benefits of team-ship and all that malarkey. I couldn't really quibble about the landscapes in the background, and luckily the story doesn't offer too much text to distract from those, but the plot is daft, and the length of time where the morals are hammered home at the end is having a laugh. Snowflakey sentiment, illogical throughout, and unable to get around the whole bridge-construction-sans-opposable-thumbs thing – this is pretty and pretty disposable, unfortunately.

I read this book with my 6 year old daughter, and she really enjoyed it.

She read the pages with ease and there were just a couple of words that she needed to check with me – it was lovely that she was able to read it to me and it helped with her reading practice too.

The story was fun and we loved the focus on teamwork to get the problems sorted as well. The plot was well developed and the book was well written, it had a great flow to it and she found it easy to follow.

The illustrations were nice and suited the story too.

It is 4 stars from me for this one – highly recommended!

This was a cute read. Not sure how taekwondo would actually help in this situation but my kids thought it was a good read. I like it's message and the pictures were lovely.

Thank you to the publisher for this copy in exchange for my honest review.

A wonderfully illustrated children’s book, featuring three brave kangaroos on a rescue mission. There were nice lessons learned, and again, the illustrations were beautiful!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my review copy!

Thanks netgalley for this children ar I’m an exchange for a review from my young nephews
The Taekwonderoos is a delightful read-aloud story.
A vividly illustrated book has a cute but simple storyline: a rescue.
It introduces American kids to a different but colourful landscape of Australia and is of interest to youths who like action.
There are several phrases and words that might require adult explanation, the message is something : teamwork prevails
There is no I in TEAM
Everything is awesome if we part of a team!

Nice story about a rescue but it seems like it would interest only kids that take taekwondo classes or kangaroo lovers. Loved the ethics and working as a team spirit to achieve a goal but in all I wasn't very impressed. Maybe I would like to see more dialogue than narrative, because I felt while reading it that was trying to embed the taekwondo principles. Little one didn't stay until the end either, but maybe is also for bigger kids.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for my early copy.

Thank you so much to Twin Unicorn Press and Netgalley for the ebook to read and review.

The three taekwonderoos are working on their taekwondo when they hear a sound, the sound is coming from a Joey that is stuck and scared. Together they plan out how to save him and work together using all their individual skills.

This was a wonderful read, teaching all about kindness and teamwork. I really enjoyed how each of the kangaroos had a skill set all of their own and how each time they used their skills during this rescue mission the other two were amazed at what they could do. I liked how they did plan out everything they were going to do together before they did anything wanting to keep the Joey as safe as possible.

It had wonderful messages of kindness, of bravery, of selflessness, all qualities that are wonderful for young children to read about and to learn. It also has some parts where it teaches about the sport, about kangaroos, about the location, but all intwined within the story so you aren’t even aware you’ll be learning.

This book was a really fun read, the characters were all adorable, the illustrations were super cute, I loved seeing what the kangaroos were doing on each page on this rescue mission. You don’t see many picture books using kangaroos so it was really cute, I really enjoyed reading it and do recommend it, children are going to have a lot of fun reading it.

The Taekwonderoos is a delightful read-aloud story. This vividly illustrated book has a simple storyline: a rescue. It introduces American children to the colorful landscape of Australia and is of interest to youths who like action. There are several phrases and words that required adult interpretation, but the message is solid: teamwork prevails.