Koala Lou

Written By: Mem Fox

Illustrated By: Pamela Lofts

Grade Level 2-4

Have you ever wanted to win at something but felt inferior when you didn’t come in first?  Were your parents still proud?  If you have ever felt this way, you can relate to Koala Lou in Mem Fox’s story Koala Lou.  This is a story about the importance of letting loved ones know they are loved.  This story is also about how winning is not everything and you are loved for you and not what you do!

Koalo Lou feels much loved by her mother.  A hundred times a day when she was a baby, Kola Lou’s mother says to her, “Koala Lou I do love you!”  Whenever Koala Lou did anything, her mother told her she loved her.  Time went by and other siblings were born.  Koala Lou’s mother stopped saying I love you because she was too busy with taking care of all of the siblings.  Koala Lou missed her mother telling her she loved her.  Koala Lou decided that she would come up with a plan to make her mom proud so that she would tell her she loved her once again.  Koala trained and trained to compete and win the Bush Olympics.  Koala did not win and felt that she let her mother down.  When she climbed up to the tree to her mother, her mother told her that she loves her and she always will!

This story is an example of fictional literature.  This story falls under the genre animal fantasy.  Illustrations are bright and vibrant and support the fantasy aspect of this text to readers.  I think the illustrations do a very good job supporting the text.  I think this is a great story to use for young readers; there are many lessons to be taken away from this story.  The importance of letting family know they are loved, how family should love you for who you are and not what you do, and the lesson that winning is not everything.  The author uses literary devices to get her purpose across to readers.  Mem uses repetition and rhyme to engage readers to the main idea of the story.  Mem repeats, “Koala Lou, I do love you,” over and over in the beginning of the story to stress the importance of this phrase in the story to readers.  She also uses alliteration, for example “Koala Klaws.”  There are also some examples of assonance. 

This story would be a great read aloud for grades 2-4.  Some vocabulary the teacher would address includes “emu, platypus, longed, spite, and spectators.”  A discussion about the setting, where the story takes place would be importance in increasing student understanding and making the text more accessible.  Having a discussion about where Koala’s live and other animals the live in the rainforest would be helpful for students to understand the “Bush Olympics” and the events the author makes up for this “Olympic games.”  Depending on the grade level would determine how in depth this discussion would go.  The teacher could ask students many leading questions before, during and after this story.  Questions such as, “How do you think Koala feels? Why?”  Will help readers relate and make personal connections to the story.  “Have you ever had a similar experience?  Have you ever felt disappointed in yourself for losing at something?”  These are questions that will help readers think more deeply about the text!

This book links to the ELA MA curriculum frameworks:

1.3: Describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text.

3.1: Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.