Lily's showing off - will she never learn how to behave? (I'll Show You, Blue Kangaroo - Emma Chichester Clark)

Member Name: LAURALILIA

Product:	I'll Show You, Blue Kangaroo - Emma Chichester Clark
Date:	02/02/09 (151 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Raises great issues to discuss with children in a fun way.

Disadvantages: Difficult to get hold of at the moment.

I'll Show You Blue Kangaroo - by Emma Chichester Clark

***The Book***

This book is one in a series of books about Lily and her soft toy Blue Kangaroo. These stories usually focus upon moral issues that might face a young child. This one centres upon Lily showing off - oblivious to either irritating people, wrecking the house and even putting her younger brother in danger. The phrase "I'll show you" is used repetitively, which is good for young children to pick up on.

She is told off plenty of times, but just ignores what she it told. One day she goes too far and after she jumps onto a see-saw Blue Kangaroo is flung into the air. Her mother sends her to her room, but Blue Kangaroo is lost! Blue Kangaroo is stuck in a tree - hanging on for dear life, when eventually he falls to the ground.

He hops off home, injured and Lily's mum and dad repair him. Blue Kangaroo spends all night pondering as to whether he should forgive Lily or not. Should her give her a second chance? (Love the picture where he is holding his hurt tale, staring into the night sky).

Lily wakes up and rushes to Blue Kangaroo - but her mum says she must show she knows how to behave first. Lily helped her mother that day and proved she could be well behaved. The book ends nicely with Lily promising to behave - saying "I'll show you Blue Kanagaroo", and Blue Kangaroo believes she really will!

***Opinion***

This book is great fun as it shows Lily showing off, making mischief in funny ways, which a young child will both enjoy looking at and possibly identify with!

Again, this book has plenty of punctuation, interesting verbs and a good range of vocabulary to be exposed to. A more confident reader could read it alone and I would say it is suitable to be read to children aged 2 - 6. My children are much older and still have a quick flick through when they think no one is around.

I like this book because it raises quite a few issues that are useful to discuss with children:

-showing off
-not following a parent's instruction
-being sorry
-loyalty
-forgiveness
-trust
-turning over a new leaf

It gives a parent the chance to ask their child what they think about Lily's behaviour and what they would do in her place.

The illustrations are beautiful starting with a bright yellow front cover (the one shown above I think is an older version), with a picture of Lily and Blue Kangaroo on the front. The opening page carries the same two lines as the other books and then set the scene; this is in common with the other Blue Kangaroo books, giving children that sense of familiarity. I also love the illustrations where Blue Kangaroo is cringing as Lily gets up to all sorts of antics.

As I have already outlined, this book raises all kinds of important issues and the one I like the most is that Blue Kangaroo stays loyal to Lily and forgives her. These are important qualities for a child to learn. It also ends on a high note with Lily promising to turn over a new leaf.


***Availability***

This book is available from Waterstones for £5.99, it is available for £4.99 at Amazon, but it is out of stock at the moment. It is a nice book to collect along with the others.

Summary: An amusing story about the consequences of not doing as you are told!