We All Need Someone To Love Us (I Love You, Blue Kangaroo - Emma Chichester Clark)

Member Name: belfin

Product:	I Love You, Blue Kangaroo - Emma Chichester Clark
Date:	27/02/09 (146 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great illustrations and a story that children will relate to

Disadvantages: None

***Background***

Emma Chichester Clark is responsible for not only writing this series of books but illustrating them as well and this book was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal. As well as the Blue Kangaroo series, she has written many other books including the ones all about Melrose and Croc.

***The Story***

The story starts with a little girl cuddling her toy.

"Blue Kangaroo belonged to Lily.
He was her very own kangaroo.
Every night, Lilly said,
'I love you, Blue Kangaroo!'
And Blue Kangaroo fell fast asleep in Lily's arms."

Things start to slowly change for Blue Kangaroo throughout this book as various family members come to visit and bring Lily other cuddly toys. Each night she snuggles them into bed and tells each one she loves them and every time the list gets longer, Blue Kangaroo feels that he is getting pushed further and further down that list.

He is very sad by all this and can't sleep at nights, then one night he is pushed out of the bed in the middle of the night and goes to fine another bed to sleep in. He finds Lily's baby brother is alone and cuddles in with him.

In the morning Lily is very upset because she can't find Blue Kangaroo anywhere and then notices her little brother playing with him. The baby is upset when Lily takes him back and her mother suggests that she should let him have one toy because she has so many.

Lilly brings out all her other cuddly toys and insists he can have them but not Blue Kangaroo. The story ends with the little baby cuddled up in his cot with all the toys that Lily had been given.

"Lily went to bed with Blue Kangaroo.
Blue Kangaroo snuggled up to Lily. She stroked his blue ears, then she kissed the tip of his soft blue nose.
'I love you Blue Kangaroo!' she said...

...and Blue Kangaroo fell fast asleep in her arms.

***The Illustrations***

I really love the illustrations in this series of books, as they are so bright and full of colour throughout. There are little speech bubbles to show what characters are saying and this cartoon type style seems to work very well alongside the longer story at the bottom of each page. When Blue Kangaroo is worried each night we see a picture of him in a little circle that shows a very sad expression and this is captured perfectly.

***My Thoughts***

My son is starting to get a bit old for these books now but when he used to see a Blue Kangaroo book in the library, he would get excited and insisted we take it home to read. This little character really seemed to appeal to him even though the story centres round a little girl.

I suppose the reason for this is that all children have a favourite toy and it's not always a bog standard teddy bear these days. My son has a favourite grey rabbit that he got when he was just a baby and it's only been in the past year or so that we've managed to convince him not to take it everywhere with him. Of course it always takes pride of place in his bed at night and if he is upset, he always reaches for it.

In this story we see how that special bond is formed and that even though other toys may be given, the original is often the best one of all and it just takes a feeling of that toy being lost for a child to realise how important it is. I think it's very clever that we are shown the feelings of Blue Kangaroo too, and although this toy doesn't speak or really do that much, he is very appealing and cute.

I also like the repetition in this book as each night the list of toys that Lily says she loves gets bigger and this is good for encouraging a child to try to remember what comes next in the sequence.

This is definitely a book I would recommend for any child who has a favourite toy.

***Other Blue Kangaroo Books***

What Shall We Do, Blue Kangaroo?
Merry Christmas, Blue Kangaroo!
Just For You, Blue Kangaroo
Where Are You, Blue Kangaroo?
Happy Birthday To You, Blue Kangaroo
It Was You, Blue Kangaroo!
I'll Show You, Blue Kangaroo!

***Price and Availability***

The price on the back on this hardback is £5.99 but you can get it for only £4.49 from Amazon.

ISBN No. 0006646840

Summary: Another lovely book in the Blue Kangaroo series.