Reviewer: Keane Krause
Age: 15

The book jacket was beautiful and made the book look inviting and interesting to read. The topic was also interesting because koalas aren’t well known creatures in terms of their history and origin. Most people think: cute, furry, pouched animals that eat eucalyptus leaves and live in Australia. The book goes beyond the surface information and deep into koala history.

There were a lot of new and exciting facts to learn from the book. I liked the amount of information and the pictures. In some of the photographs, the koalas were adorable. The first chapter, however, was hard to follow and had lots of Latin names that were confusing — it seemed to have been written for a textbook. But the rest of the chapters were really fun.

I learned a lot about koalas. I did know that koalas eat eucalyptus, but I didn’t know that any other animal usually avoids eucalyptus leaves because of the toxic phenols in the leaves. And, although they live in Australia, koalas are popular in many countries. In Japan, you can eat koala-shaped cookies.

I had lots of fun reading the book and so did my family. I enjoyed telling my family lots of facts about koalas and their history. A timeline on koala evolution, however, would improve the book and might make the first chapter easier to understand.

Overall, I found the book was a good read and very informative. Out of 10, I would give the book a score of 9. If I were to describe the book in one word, it would be…koalasaregreat.

(Originally published in the March/April 2009 issue of YES Mag.)