 Hi everyone, my name is Steph, this is Little Bookish Teacher and today I'm here to share some koala picture book recommendations because it is save the koala month here in Australia. I will leave some links down below where you can find out some more information about the save the koala movement. But I thought this would be a great opportunity to share some picture book recommendations featuring koalas. So the first recommendation on my list is koalas, Eat Gum Leaves. This is by Laura and Phillip Bunting. It does feature Phillip Bunting's very recognizable illustration style. And koala does feature in a few of his other books as well. This is the story of a koala who gets fed up with eating gum leaves day in day out and goes to try some other foods and discovers that it really likes ice cream and then goes out and does nothing but eat ice cream which has some consequences as you would imagine. This is a picture book that takes one koala fact and turns it into a story and it is really fun and has very simple text, big illustrations, very easy to read. It's very funny. There's a lot of humor in it. I do like this idea of using it as a mentor text where you can say, hey, let's take this one very small idea about something that is quite a large topic. You could, I mean, you could talk about anything about koalas but they've decided to take one tiny little detail about their diet, about the thing that I like to eat and then turn it into a fun and entertaining story. I think that's really cool and it's a great mental text to show kids that that's something that you can do with your writing. Then there is the koala who could buy Rachel Bright. This one's illustrated by Jim Field. This is about Kevin the Koala who just wants to stay in his tree all the time. He is very afraid of doing new things even when his friends invite him to come and play down on the ground. He's like, nope, I'm staying in this tree. This is where it's safe. If I wander away from the tree, anything could happen, it's not going to happen. And then one day the unthinkable happens and his tree comes down and suddenly Kevin is forced to confront a whole new world. This one has quite a bit more text than koala's eat gum leaves and it does feature rhyming text as well. So it's really great if you are looking for rhyming patterns in words. It's a great story to read particularly if you have students or kids who struggle to try new things. It's a very gentle way to talk about it's okay to try new things. And sometimes we need to step outside of our comfort zone to realize that it is okay. And there are some really positive friendships in here because Kevin's friends are very positive and supportive of him. There is also koala arc by Stephen Michael King. This is set during a bushfire and we frequently have bushfires here in Australia and it has a significant impact on wildlife. So it is a narrative and koala decides to take a boat in the middle of the smoke from the bushfire and set out to rescue as many of their friends as they can. And so we meet a wide variety of Australian native animals in this story. There's some great tier two verbs used in this book as well as great opportunities for discussion around the impact of bushfires on animals and their habitats. And it is just beautifully illustrated. And the other thing that I really liked about this one is that you actually have a map of the area where all the animals live on the endpapers and that the front and the back endpapers are slightly different. So you actually get to see the wider location of where all these animals are from. This was absolutely gorgeous. I had to borrow a copy of this from school and I desperately need to get myself a copy because it's wonderful. Another book that looks at the impact of bushfires on native wildlife is Tippi and Jelly Bean, the true story of a brave koala who saved her baby from a bushfire by Sophie Cunningham and illustrated by Annelle Tortop. So this is the story of Tippi who is a koala. And as the title says, it is based off a true story and Tippi and Jelly Bean were rescued from a bushfire where Tippi had protected her baby. And so they are taken to a sanctuary where they cared for and given time to recover and then re-released into the wild. And so we get that story. The cool thing about this is that we do get that as a narrative and then there's also some information about the true events that happened as well as a photo of the real Tippi and Jelly Bean, which I think is so cool. Narrative nonfiction stories are some of my favorite because they allow us to talk about how you can take real world information and you can make it a narrative and make it accessible for lots of readers. It can be relatively text heavy. It's not necessarily something that you're gonna be picking up and quickly reading. You're gonna have to spend a little bit of time talking about what's going on. Some younger children might find it confronting because you do have scenes with the actual bushfire on page. So do be aware of that going into it, but it is absolutely gorgeous. It is so wonderful. And Sophie Cunningham has been writing, I've know of at least two books, Tippi and Jelly Bean and a second one with Penguins where she's written about true animal stories. And I think those are really fun to read, especially with kids when they know that they are true stories. There is What Color is the Sea by Katie Stewart. Now this is the story of Koala who wants to know what the color of the sea is. They've never seen it. And so they ask their animal friends and every animal gives a different answer. And so Koala sets off to visit the sea to find out for themselves. And what they discover is that the sea is many colors depending on the time of day, depending on what's going on around them. And then they make a very interesting discovery when they decide to take some of the sea back with them to show their friends. And it was a really delightful little story. I wasn't expecting the ending and I thought it was really cool and really well done. I think this would be a great book if you were starting an inquiry unit where you had to come up with a question that you wanted to find the answer to because it's great. On the surface it seems like a really simple question but it is a question that has multiple answers and multiple avenues to explore. And I think that is great when leading an inquiry unit to know that your question might take you in directions that you didn't expect. This would also just be a great story if you're talking about experiences with visiting the sea or going on holidays or having a question that you want answered. So it was a lovely little story. An absolute classic here in Australia is Koala Lou by Mem Fox. This was first published in 1988 and I remember reading this as a child and it is the story of Koala Lou who is the first born Koala I think for her mother and growing up her mother always would say, Koala Lou, I do love you. And she's taken that to heart but of course when she has many, many younger siblings her mom is very busy and doesn't always say that. And so Koala Lou sets out to participate in the Bush Olympics because she thinks she needs to earn her mom's affection again. But of course that's not true. This book is the story about the unconditional love of a parent and a child of being brave and trying something new and also knowing that it's okay not to succeed in everything that you do. So it is a really wonderful little picture book. The audio, if you ever get a chance to hear Mem Fox read the audio for this, I've said this before with Mem Fox's audio books that she reads. I could just listen to her read books all day. Her voice is just so calming and soothing. This is an absolutely gorgeous classic Australian story. And then the last book that I'm going to talk about is Tim and Ed by Ursula Dupasowski and Andrew Joyner. Ursula Dupasowski is just a very clever writer. I've read many of her picture books and some of her novels and they're all wonderful. Tim and Ed are twin koalas and they live with their dad and they drive him a little bit buddy because they constantly refer to themselves as being the same. And to that end, their dad decides to show them that they are individuals and that they do have different likes and that it's okay to be different and the same at the same time. This book has beautiful rhyming texts. It's very lyrical and easy to read. It is really about independence or that early sense of independence that young children have. And as I said about the idea that it's okay to be the same and be different. And I just, I loved it. And the illustrations are just lovely. I mean, look at these characters. They're just so joyful and happy. All right, so those are my recommendations for koala picture books for Save the Koala Month. In the comments, I would love to know if you have read any of these books or if you have a koala book that you know of that you would like to share, feel free to let me know down below. If you'd like to let me know that you're here but you don't want to leave a comment feel free to leave a koala emoji down below. Otherwise I hope that wherever you're on the world you're staying safe and healthy. And I will see you in my next video. Thanks so much for watching. Bye everyone.