ROO KNOWS BLUE
by Renée Treml ; illustrated by Renée Treml
Explore colors set against an Australian landscape.
An exuberant kangaroo leaps around, singing a tune: “The sky, the lake, / some flowers too. / Roo knows, / Roo knows, / Roo knows / blue!” Spots of blue pop from the page against a mottled gray-and-white backdrop, highlighting all that Roo is seeing. As Roo bounds along, another color appears. “A fox, some rocks, / a parrot’s head. / Roo knows / Roo knows, / Roo knows….” A page turn reveals Roo confidently shouting, “BLUE!” Luckily, a possum friend is there to help. “Silly Roo, / that’s not blue, / that’s… // red!” The three letters are enormous, and a full crimson background helps readers shout out the answer. Roo sets off, bounding again. What will the next color be? The rhyme builds up the anticipation, yellow bursts from the page, and Roo answers, “blue?” Readers will delight in correcting Roo’s confusion. “Little Roo, Little Roo, / there are lots more / colours than just blue.” The bouncy text hops and scans cheerfully along, matching Roo’s playfully pounding feet. The one-note joke gets a lot of mileage. But will the trickiest color rhyme of all trip up Roo (and readers too)? (This book was reviewed digitally with 9.8-by-19.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 42.3% of actual size.)
Infinitely shareable. Roo knows giggles.
(Picture book. 3-6)