Welcome to the world of Poppy and Buddy!
About us
Poppy & Buddy is a New Zealand children’s publisher focused on making bilingual learning feel natural, accessible and engaging for families.
We believe language learning should feel approachable in real life, not overly academic or intimidating. Through stories, audio and play, we help children experience language in everyday moments, whether that’s listening in the car, sharing a bedtime story, or recognising familiar words over time.
Poppy & Buddy was created for families raising bilingual children, reconnecting with their own language and culture, or simply wanting to introduce their children to something beyond English. We’re particularly passionate about creating resources that feel easy and enjoyable to use, even for parents who don’t speak the language themselves.
At the heart of Poppy & Buddy is the belief that language is about more than vocabulary. It’s about connection, confidence and understanding the world through different perspectives.
We’re currently beta-testing the Poppy and Buddy app, which has been proven to be an effective, efficient, and fun tool for language learning.
Read all about our natural approach to language learning and our Scientific Research and Results here.
Why we started
Like many parents, we found it surprisingly difficult to find bilingual resources that felt engaging, modern and genuinely easy to use at home. Some felt overly academic. Others relied heavily on screens or assumed parents already spoke the language fluently. We wanted to create something more approachable for real family life.
Poppy & Buddy began with a simple idea: helping children hear authentic language through stories they genuinely enjoy coming back to. Over time, that grew into a wider mission to make bilingual learning feel more natural, playful and accessible for families from all backgrounds.
World Class Bilingual Tools
We’ve built a team of writers, software developers, translators, narrators, musicians, web designers, animators, testers, and researchers – to create exceptional products, like nothing else on the market. We’re confident that our products are the world’s first to bring together, for focussed language learning, all the following:
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Colourful visuals, distinctive characters, and games that capture and maintain attention.
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Simple, memorable stories that focus on what’s important in a child’s life, as well as activities from their imaginations.
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Narrations by first-language, native children.
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Reinforcement of key elements of numeracy and literacy.
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Promotion of learning by reading, listening, and speaking.