This is a simple but beautiful story to introduce young children to ecology. The illustrations are simple and fun. Full disclosure: I received a free ARC for review through Library Thing's Early reviewers program.)

I Love You, Blue Kangaroo! by Emma Chichester Clark - Waterstones

This is a poignant story about a little boy caught in a storm; when “the ocean roars and rages” he cries for help and is rescued by a whale named Blue. One day when Blue does not come, the child dives into the ocean to find him. When Blue opens his mouth to say “AAAH”, the boy discovers a “belly full of bags”, which the child works to haul away, rescuing the whale in return. We loved this idea of using an emotion word spy glass to help younger learners search in picture books for feeling and emotion words. It was inspired by the idea of using our ‘coggles’ to look for the different aspects of emotional learning in stories and other texts, but it makes the idea so much simpler by focusing on any content relating to a single aspect, or ‘cog’, at a time. It’s World Blood Cancer Day & 500 pubs and bars are making their mark by supporting ‘Pinkspiration Week’ Whenever I read this book to Margot, I’d read the “I love you” part and Margot would finish the sentence.Vuurtorenwachter Jonas vaart zijn rondje op een rustige zee. Hij houdt van de zee. Tot op een dag het weer omslaat en torenhoge gitzwarte golven zijn bootje laten omslaan. ‘De zee kolkt en woelt.’ As a teacher, I am asked by NetGalley if I would use this book in a classroom. Definitely, this book should be in schools. There is so much a teacher could do with young children to teach more about pollution in the oceans. Also, for a child to comprehend the true size of a Blue Whale, they can be compared to a school bus. With a knotted rope, a teacher could mark the sizes of various other animals, including other sea animals, and let children hold the knots at the differing sizes. They can better grasp the sizing of animals that way. There are also wonderful videos where the children in a classroom could see a whale breaching, which is what Blue does at the end of the book. As a proponent for the teaching of environmental concerns, I think this book should be included in Pre-K through second grade classroom libraries. If necessary you could introduce the idea by using the orange/green/red spy glass to look for orange/green/red things in the room/in a storybook etc. This would also be a way to include younger or less able children in a mixed learning group. Look at the colours shown in the pictures. How many different colours can you see? Can you draw colourful illustrations like this?

I Love You, Blue Kangaroo! | BookTrust

Discuss what sharing is and why it is nice to share things with other people. What do you have to share with your family / friends?

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Het verhaal wordt in korte duidelijke zinnen verteld. Tekst en beeld zijn goed op elkaar afgestemd. I received a copy of I Love You, Blue by Barroux from Blue Slip Media, Barroux, and Flyaway Books in exchange for an honest review. My daughter loves the Blue Kangaroo books lovely pictures and stories. She asks for this story everyday!!

I Love You, Blue Kangaroo! - Teaching Ideas I Love You, Blue Kangaroo! - Teaching Ideas

Although the story or the illustrations didn't blow me away, I loved that this was about a child caring about what is happening in the ocean. A boy meets a whale who is full of plastic bags. He decides to speak out about what is happening to the ocean and the sea creatures.Time running out to save Alfie – please help by registering & sharing, especially if you have Chinese or mixed heritage Team Margot & NHS Blood and Transplant launch new primary school education programme: ‘Giving to help others’ Find out about toys from the past. What have children played with during different periods in time? Team Margot call to action: if you’re mixed race, we urgently need your help – you could be a match for Lara & others like her