I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

A lot of education is packed into this cute graphic novel. I love the extra information at the end of the book and the fact that it's still in a fun format rather than a wall of text a child might ignore. The illustrations are colorful and easy to follow. The action keeps you reading to see what happens next, perfect for young readers.

A sweet story with beautiful imagery. Hard to read on my phone due to formatting but not impossible.

My daughter loved it.

Rainbow the Koala needs to leave the nest and his mother to find his own home. But as he is searching for a tree, a wild fire starts and threatens to burn the forest and take his life. With colorful and emotionally packed illustrations Rainbow's story is told in clear comic panels. This will be a great non fiction book for young readers

Author/illustrator Remy Lai continues her excellent new series, Surviving the Wild, with the fraught adventures of Rainbow the Koala. When she's about a year old, Rainbow leaves her mother's care and ventures out on her own. She soon encounters trouble, struggling to find enough water and falling into a swimming pool in her quest for a drink. She then faces her first bushfire, surviving only by clinging to the very top of the tallest gum tree in the forest. Luckily, a rescue team finds Rainbow and takes her to a makeshift koala hospital to recover before being released back into the bush. “The True Story Behind Rainbow's Adventure,” which closes out this early reader graphic novel, discusses the real events that inspired Rainbow's story, the perils posed by climate change, and what readers can do to help protect vulnerable ecosystems. Between the adorable animals and their nail-biting adventures, readers will tear through this series!

A quick glance will tell you most of what you need to know about the plot of this book. Most books about juvenile animals are intended to do a couple of things: teach us facts about the animal species and teach us to empathize with the animal and thus to be more open to conservation/ecology efforts. This is done through subtle coding, slipping in the message with cute behavior. First we see Rainbow interacting with the mother, learning to survive the natural environment. Then they are threatened by fires, habitat loss, hunting, etc. It's a pretty basic formula. We learn from the afterward that the story is based on real situations. The factual basis will be appealing to adults, the simple illustrations appealing to very young readers.

Rainbow is a young koala who's enjoyed life in his mom's pouch. When Mom tells him it's time for him to go off and live on his own, he's scared! It's not as friendly out there when you don't have your mom with you, and poor Rainbow can't find a good tree of his own or a place where he can get water. It's hot and the forest is dry, and the creek that he remembers mom taking him for water seems to be dried up. Thirsty, tired, and dispirited, he escapes humans and finds himself in the middle of an exodus: there's a forest fire coming, and Rainbow is right in the middle of it. Rainbow's story is inspired by the Australian bush fires of early 2020, which impacted over 60,000 koalas and millions of other animals and insects. Rainbow's story hits hard; there are painful moments as he surveys the devastation around him and burns his own paws as he tries to find safety and shelter. Rainbow's fear clearly comes through in his first-person narration, whether it's through his speaking out loud to his mother as he struggles to survive in the wild, or to calm himself as he sees the forest burning around him. The stark, decimated landscape is heartbreaking in the aftermath of the fire.  Once again, we worry that Rainbow won't understand that some humans - in this case, the rescuers searching the forest to bring animals back to animal hospitals and rehabilitation facilities. Back matter includes the story behind Rainbow's tale, koala facts, facts about climate change and ways that kids can take action.

As soon as I saw the title of this book, I knew that I had to read it. My first grade nephew's favorite animal is koalas and he loves rainbows. So, a koala named Rainbow - what could be better?!

The book teaches about the life of a koala in a simple comic book style format. Rainbow is a young koala who grows up and must fend for himself, using the skills his mother taught him. At one point in the story, he has to find water due to lack of rainfall and dehydration. Then, a forest fire comes and he is rescused by humans. This book explores the dangers of climate change and how it negatively impacts the lives of koalas. At the end of the book there are simple suggestions for children on ways that they can help slow climate change, such as turning off electrical items not being used and riding bikes instead of driving in cars.

I would recommend this book for children ages 4-9 to help teach about how the things humans do have an impact on animals. The illustrations are beautiful and the writing is simple. I will be keeping my eyes out for more books in this series.

Thank you to #NetGalley for an ARC of #SurvivingtheWild:RainbowtheKoala by #RemyLai in exchange for an honest review.

Engaging graphic novel, exploring how climate change and people’s actions can hurt/ help wildlife. Perfect for young readers!

I'm going to share the same review I had for Star because Rainbow resonated the same for me: I love Remy's work and her approach to MG graphic novels. This one hit me in my feels in a way that I wasn't expecting. It tackled the crisis around animals, specifically Koalas in this case, in the wild in a beautiful yet unexpected way since there was this social-emotional aspect to it. I think it's important to encourage kids to be more aware of the various issues of our world and show them how we can be more compassionate to our fellow earth inhabitants. I hope that educators and librarians as well as wild life advocates will use these books to help further children's comprehension around these issues.

This is an overall heartwarming tale with lovable characters. The story itself and illustrations are wonderful and perfectly engaging for the reader.

I read this to my 6 year old and she was completely engaged. Her favorite part was when the mom and baby koala were together. I think this book will be a great classroom resource for any grade level!

I received an electronic ARC from Macmillan Children's Publishing Group through NetGalley.
Part of Lai's Surviving the Wild series.
Readers meet Rainbow when they are a very young koala still living in their mother's pouch. We learn that koalas live there for months as their mothers teach them how to survive. Then they set off on their own. Rainbow struggles to find a new tree. Finally, Rainbow has a home but it is almost destroyed in a bush fire. The devastation is portrayed gently and realistically as the fire sweeps through the entire area. Rainbow is rescued, treated and released to finish the story.
Following the story, Lai shares the facts behind the book. She takes readers through what happens and how koalas and other animals are rescued and returned to their habitats. She also offers helpful ideas to conserve our natural resources.
Well done to introduce elementary level readers to wildlife habitats, rehab, and survival.

This is a fantastic new series on the importance of conservation. It latches on to the marketing of conservation efforts of telling climate change narratives through the perspective of cute and cuddly animals. While there are some concerns over this method, these narratives are great for showing empathy for the animals and capturing a large and sometimes complex issue in a simple way.

Surviving the Wild series: Rainbow the Koala, Star the Elephant

Remy Lai, author and artist, has two new early reader graphic novels in a series featuring animals in heroic situations and perilous adventures. Graphic novels are an alternative for early readers compared to the standard easy reader books, and increasingly there are more graphic novels for ages 4 to 8, although middle grades are probably the prime targets of this series. Kids who have a difficult time engaging with regular books or are learning to read can be drawn to graphic novels and these might inspire otherwise reluctant participants to eventually become voracious readers.

Both books are lengthy (over 100 pages) and beautifully illustrated. The narratives, however, touch on serious subjects such as environmental changes, separation anxiety from parents/herds, food insecurity, survival skills, injuries and questionable interaction with humans. Each book has an explanation at the end on what inspired the story, which develops a deeper appreciation of storytelling.

For Star the Elephant, the story is based on three elephants that lost their home due to deforestation and then swam across a strait to a populated island, necessitating a capture and transfer to an animal sanctuary.

For Rainbow the Koala, the inspiration was about the bush wildfires in Australia wherein millions of animals perished. Koalas were found by specially trained dogs, treated in animal hospitals and released back into forested areas.

There are a lot of sensitive scenes, as I mentioned above, that might be upsetting to a younger range of readers, so I’d recommend these for readers 8 and older. Star gets tranquilized and nearly drowns while swimming. Rainbow must flee the raging forest fires. Both are seen struggling to find food and are saddened when they are separated from their mothers (no worries, happy reunions occur). But both tales are ultimately charming. The author is expanding the series with a future book, Sunny the Shark, to be published in August 2022.

The illustrations are wonderful and add to the storytelling immensely. Included are numerous facts about the featured animals and their homelands. Remy Lai is multitalented storyteller and should have great success with this environmentally minded series. 5 stars.

Thanks to Henry Holt and NetGalley for the ARCs of this series.

Surviving the Wild: Rainbow the Koala is a beautiful and suspenseful story of a koala learning to survive on his own. I love how it ties in real events of the 2019 Australian bushfire, and teaches about climate change, protecting animals and the environment, and, of course, koalas! Rainbow faces many challenges as he learns to live on his own. He misses his mother, but always remembers the advice she gave him when he was young. The book is a little scary, so preview it first if you're sharing it with younger readers. I'll definitely be buying copies for my classroom library!

A delightful beginner graphic novel, I read this one with my 6 year old, who loved the format, the pictures, and of course, Rainbow themself. My 9 year old read it on her own and was laughing out loud at some of the humor. A joyful addition to anyone's collection.

In this second installment, we see Rainbow, the koala, learn from his mom and grow. Rainbow has to be out on his own, finding a home, food, and water. When a brush fire invades his forest, he needs to figure out how to survive. The end of this book has facts about animals and brush fires, particularly the ones in Australia that this book is based upon. The text is simple to read and well-written. The art is good. I like that it's a fictionalized story (talking animals) but that we learn facts.

I received a digital ARC from Henry Holt & Co. via NetGalley. My 7 year old son and I read this and we really enjoyed the dramatic story of Rainbow surviving a bush fire in Australia. Rainbow the koala's mom teaches him how to go off on his own. Then when he is ready it is very hard to navigate the world alone, but he follows all her rules and survives even the scariest situations. This book made it easy to discuss our environment and climate change with my son. Highly recommended.