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Blue’s Planet: Australia
You’re never too young to save the world.
Blue has always dreamt of joining her parents as they document environmental issues around the world. Finally, she gets her wish.
A hot summer in Australia brings Blue face to face with the climate crisis. From volunteering at a wildlife hospital to joining a koala rescue mission, she’s determined to make a difference.
But with bushfires raging out of control, no animal is safe – and no human either.
Blue has always dreamt of joining her parents as they document environmental issues around the world. Finally, she gets her wish.
A hot summer in Australia brings Blue face to face with the climate crisis. From volunteering at a wildlife hospital to joining a koala rescue mission, she’s determined to make a difference.
But with bushfires raging out of control, no animal is safe – and no human either.
332 pages, Paperback
Published February 15, 2024
16 people want to read
About the author
Lucy McRobert
4 books2 followersLucy McRobert is a wildlife storyteller.
I love to tell stories about wildlife, wild places, and hopefully inspire you to have a wild adventure of your very own. I believe that a wild life is a happier, healthier life, and that we can all benefit from more time spent in nature. At heart, I’m a communicator. I love to bring people of all ages, but especially young people, closer to nature.
A freelance communications and marketing professional, I love to promote wildlife and wild experiences to people from all backgrounds and of all ages. I work with local and national wildlife charities and nature businesses to help them improve their own comms and marketing; I have expertise in content creation (including websites, social media, print, email), editorial (including editing magazines and other publications), website planning and creation, social advertising, communications strategies, campaign planning and more, including analysis and evaluation. I especially love to work with small businesses and charities to help them tell their own stories, including training and empowering staff. I enjoy public speaking, chairing and writing presentations, so can help with this area, too.
I’m a writer. My first book, 365 Days Wild, is published by William Collins (2019) in partnership with The Wildlife Trusts, and offers 365 ways to make nature part of your life every day. I write a bi-monthly column on nature conservation for Birdwatch magazine, and have written for BBC Wildlife, Birdwatching, and more, including researching Tony Juniper’s What Nature does for Britain (2015). I contributed four written pieces to the acclaimed Seasons (edited by Melissa Harrison)(Elliott & Thompson, 2016). In 2015, I was placed 38th on BBC Wildlife first wildlife power list, as one of the UK’s most influential conservationists. I have appeared on TV and radio, and give regular talks to groups around the UK.
I have published academically on the impact of connecting people with nature, with my piece ‘Facebook Nature: My generation and other animals’ in Convery, I & Davies, P. (eds.) Changing Perceptions of Nature (Boydell & Brewer, 2015), and co-authoring ‘30 Days Wild: Development and Evaluation of a Large-Scale Nature Engagement Campaign to Improve Well-Being’, Plos:One (Richardson, Cormack, McRobert & Underhill, 2016).
For five years I worked as Communications Manager for The Wildlife Trusts UK office. I helped to set up one of the UK’s most impactful and influential environmental campaigns, 30 Days Wild, encouraging hundreds of thousands of people to do something wild every day throughout the month of June. I’ve also worked in environmental education with the Rutland Osprey Project, connecting 3,000 children across Leicestershire and Rutland with birds and wildlife.
I am a keen birder and cetacean-watcher, and a self-confessed amateur naturalist. I am passionate about encouraging the next generation of nature conservationists, and in 2012 co-founded the youth nature network, A Focus On Nature. My husband, Rob, and I are trying to bring our little girl, Georgiana, up to love wildlife as much as we do, whilst minimising her footprint on the earth. We share in all our wild adventures and are loving discovering firsthand the importance of a wild childhood. Hopefully she’ll grow up as passionate about nature as her parents.
I love to tell stories about wildlife, wild places, and hopefully inspire you to have a wild adventure of your very own. I believe that a wild life is a happier, healthier life, and that we can all benefit from more time spent in nature. At heart, I’m a communicator. I love to bring people of all ages, but especially young people, closer to nature.
A freelance communications and marketing professional, I love to promote wildlife and wild experiences to people from all backgrounds and of all ages. I work with local and national wildlife charities and nature businesses to help them improve their own comms and marketing; I have expertise in content creation (including websites, social media, print, email), editorial (including editing magazines and other publications), website planning and creation, social advertising, communications strategies, campaign planning and more, including analysis and evaluation. I especially love to work with small businesses and charities to help them tell their own stories, including training and empowering staff. I enjoy public speaking, chairing and writing presentations, so can help with this area, too.
I’m a writer. My first book, 365 Days Wild, is published by William Collins (2019) in partnership with The Wildlife Trusts, and offers 365 ways to make nature part of your life every day. I write a bi-monthly column on nature conservation for Birdwatch magazine, and have written for BBC Wildlife, Birdwatching, and more, including researching Tony Juniper’s What Nature does for Britain (2015). I contributed four written pieces to the acclaimed Seasons (edited by Melissa Harrison)(Elliott & Thompson, 2016). In 2015, I was placed 38th on BBC Wildlife first wildlife power list, as one of the UK’s most influential conservationists. I have appeared on TV and radio, and give regular talks to groups around the UK.
I have published academically on the impact of connecting people with nature, with my piece ‘Facebook Nature: My generation and other animals’ in Convery, I & Davies, P. (eds.) Changing Perceptions of Nature (Boydell & Brewer, 2015), and co-authoring ‘30 Days Wild: Development and Evaluation of a Large-Scale Nature Engagement Campaign to Improve Well-Being’, Plos:One (Richardson, Cormack, McRobert & Underhill, 2016).
For five years I worked as Communications Manager for The Wildlife Trusts UK office. I helped to set up one of the UK’s most impactful and influential environmental campaigns, 30 Days Wild, encouraging hundreds of thousands of people to do something wild every day throughout the month of June. I’ve also worked in environmental education with the Rutland Osprey Project, connecting 3,000 children across Leicestershire and Rutland with birds and wildlife.
I am a keen birder and cetacean-watcher, and a self-confessed amateur naturalist. I am passionate about encouraging the next generation of nature conservationists, and in 2012 co-founded the youth nature network, A Focus On Nature. My husband, Rob, and I are trying to bring our little girl, Georgiana, up to love wildlife as much as we do, whilst minimising her footprint on the earth. We share in all our wild adventures and are loving discovering firsthand the importance of a wild childhood. Hopefully she’ll grow up as passionate about nature as her parents.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 18, 2024
Blue’s Planet: Australia, is an informative story about twelve-year-old Blue, who has a strong passion (much like her parents) for wildlife animals. When her parents—who’s always away on trips to document and journal about animals—give her a life-changing chance to go along with them for their next trip, Blue with no question accepts the long-awaited offer.
In this book, you can expect amazing illustrations splattered here and there, informative facts about wildlife animals, and some of the dangers they are in.
However, while I enjoyed the concept, setting, and characters of this book, the plot felt very lacking. I read until page 175, which is more than halfway through the book. In the start, I thought the book just had a slow start. However, there seemed to be no arcs or anything that hooked the readers. The book was merely a journey for Blue, meeting animals here and there.
Blue didn’t have any character development, and the book was solely focused on the plot. Like I said, the plot wasn’t telling a story, more of so a journey without a real focus. It’s more like a documentary, and the fictional parts are often cliché. When fiction parts do happen, it seems to feel unnecessary to the plot itself. Moreover, although Blue can prove to be likable, she is often a mary-sue, and is somewhat stereotypical.
And although informative, this book seems to be more educational rather than entertaining, or really telling a story.
Like most of the books I didn’t enjoy, perhaps it just wasn’t my cup of tea. I could see middle grade readers with an interest in animals loving this book. But I could really tell the effort Lucy McRobert had put into these pages, and I hope her passion continues and her career skyrockets!
Thank you to NetGalley and Sweet Cherry Publishing for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
In this book, you can expect amazing illustrations splattered here and there, informative facts about wildlife animals, and some of the dangers they are in.
However, while I enjoyed the concept, setting, and characters of this book, the plot felt very lacking. I read until page 175, which is more than halfway through the book. In the start, I thought the book just had a slow start. However, there seemed to be no arcs or anything that hooked the readers. The book was merely a journey for Blue, meeting animals here and there.
Blue didn’t have any character development, and the book was solely focused on the plot. Like I said, the plot wasn’t telling a story, more of so a journey without a real focus. It’s more like a documentary, and the fictional parts are often cliché. When fiction parts do happen, it seems to feel unnecessary to the plot itself. Moreover, although Blue can prove to be likable, she is often a mary-sue, and is somewhat stereotypical.
And although informative, this book seems to be more educational rather than entertaining, or really telling a story.
Like most of the books I didn’t enjoy, perhaps it just wasn’t my cup of tea. I could see middle grade readers with an interest in animals loving this book. But I could really tell the effort Lucy McRobert had put into these pages, and I hope her passion continues and her career skyrockets!
Thank you to NetGalley and Sweet Cherry Publishing for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
January 18, 2024
Animal lover Blue is moving across the world.
What a totally cracking children’s book! In Blue’s Planet: Australia Lucy McRobert includes a little bit of everything that nature loving children will adore, as well as everyday issues like friendships, so that this book really is more than the sum of its parts. Add in the brilliant illustrations from Alisha Monnin and Blue’s Planet: Australia is quite fabulous.
I loved the physical presentation of text. It’s well spaced and sufficient to engage confident readers with new and interesting vocabulary, but it is also accessible and well supported by image to encourage more reluctant independent readers, especially as unfamiliar vocabulary is frequently explained skilfully and naturally in the story.
It’s a brilliant story too. There’s good pace with all kinds of things happening as Blue becomes embroiled in her new life in Australia. There’s excitement and danger, wildlife and friendship and so much to engage young readers in a totally fabulous plot. Whilst the Australian setting and storyline is the most exciting, I loved the inclusion of Hugh the hedgehog at the start of the story in Leicester as it shows children there is wildlife everywhere if only they knew to look. This makes the story all the more inclusive.
If Blue’s Planet: Australia were to be used in classrooms, its potential is amazing. There’s so much geography, ecology and science that I believe it would be a catalyst for further engagement in subjects beyond English where it would be brilliant for writing newspaper reports of the events Blue encounters. The use of ‘Natterjack’ social media would make a brilliant starting point for discussion about online presence and safety, for example.
However, the most wonderful aspect of Blue’s Planet: Australia is the status given to children. Through Blue, Archie and Katy, young people are presented so sensitively but without being patronised. Lucy McRobert makes it clear that children have intelligence and knowledge and that they have the power to make a profound and positive impact on the world. The author presents real world difficulties like climate change, bush fires, and disappearing flora and fauna without sentiment but in a way that engages readers of all ages and fills them with enthusiasm to want to do something to help. There are other realistic aspects too such as the power of social media, the impact of family and the exploration of bullying, for example, that make this a relevant, important and absorbing story. I think young readers will really take to the pragmatic Leo with his occasional use of ‘bloody’ in his speech too.
I have a very strong feeling that Blue’s Planet: Australia is going to turn many young readers into wildlife advocates, climate activists or travellers – or all of those things. I would have adored this story as a child and I loved it as a middle aged grown up. If you’ve a young person in your life remotely interested in nature and animals, don’t miss Blue’s Planet: Australia. It’s quite brilliant.
What a totally cracking children’s book! In Blue’s Planet: Australia Lucy McRobert includes a little bit of everything that nature loving children will adore, as well as everyday issues like friendships, so that this book really is more than the sum of its parts. Add in the brilliant illustrations from Alisha Monnin and Blue’s Planet: Australia is quite fabulous.
I loved the physical presentation of text. It’s well spaced and sufficient to engage confident readers with new and interesting vocabulary, but it is also accessible and well supported by image to encourage more reluctant independent readers, especially as unfamiliar vocabulary is frequently explained skilfully and naturally in the story.
It’s a brilliant story too. There’s good pace with all kinds of things happening as Blue becomes embroiled in her new life in Australia. There’s excitement and danger, wildlife and friendship and so much to engage young readers in a totally fabulous plot. Whilst the Australian setting and storyline is the most exciting, I loved the inclusion of Hugh the hedgehog at the start of the story in Leicester as it shows children there is wildlife everywhere if only they knew to look. This makes the story all the more inclusive.
If Blue’s Planet: Australia were to be used in classrooms, its potential is amazing. There’s so much geography, ecology and science that I believe it would be a catalyst for further engagement in subjects beyond English where it would be brilliant for writing newspaper reports of the events Blue encounters. The use of ‘Natterjack’ social media would make a brilliant starting point for discussion about online presence and safety, for example.
However, the most wonderful aspect of Blue’s Planet: Australia is the status given to children. Through Blue, Archie and Katy, young people are presented so sensitively but without being patronised. Lucy McRobert makes it clear that children have intelligence and knowledge and that they have the power to make a profound and positive impact on the world. The author presents real world difficulties like climate change, bush fires, and disappearing flora and fauna without sentiment but in a way that engages readers of all ages and fills them with enthusiasm to want to do something to help. There are other realistic aspects too such as the power of social media, the impact of family and the exploration of bullying, for example, that make this a relevant, important and absorbing story. I think young readers will really take to the pragmatic Leo with his occasional use of ‘bloody’ in his speech too.
I have a very strong feeling that Blue’s Planet: Australia is going to turn many young readers into wildlife advocates, climate activists or travellers – or all of those things. I would have adored this story as a child and I loved it as a middle aged grown up. If you’ve a young person in your life remotely interested in nature and animals, don’t miss Blue’s Planet: Australia. It’s quite brilliant.
February 22, 2024
Have you ever wondered about the true consequences of throwing a paper bottle in the trash?
This book truly opened my eyes to the true problems our world faces today. I must say, I knew that global warming and climate change was a problem,
but this truly exemplary piece of art made me acknowledge the growing threat our planet faces!
Blue, affectionately known as Bluebird, is a normal girl living in the small city of Lanceister, with her grandparents.Her parents are wildlife conservers,
and she seems to have inherited their love for the natural world. Blue has always wanted to travel with her parents to their many wildlife adventures,
but she has always been denied her request - until now!
Join Blue as she travels with her parents to Australia, where her Gran lives, with nothing but a phone and a small social-media (Natterjack) account,
ready to save the world with a big heart and a great love for nature!
This was such a wonderful book, it was so inspiring, because it highlighted the importance of nature conservation, and it brought awareness to the growing
wildfires in Australia. It looks like a regular book, but I regret not picking it up sooner. It made me feel so happy, and it brought me to realize - that, each day, we write 'Save Nature' on the very paper we cut down trees to make. I loved it, and I will give it a 10/10 !! Amazing, inspirational, and most of all, beautiful. I also loved that Blue was just a regular girl with big dreams that came true because it makes us believe that we have a chance to be like Blue, and achieve our dreams !! I also loved Natterjack and the great descriptions of the wildlife and beauty in Australia, it made me hope that one day, I will visit Australia. I recommend this book! :)
This book truly opened my eyes to the true problems our world faces today. I must say, I knew that global warming and climate change was a problem,
but this truly exemplary piece of art made me acknowledge the growing threat our planet faces!
Blue, affectionately known as Bluebird, is a normal girl living in the small city of Lanceister, with her grandparents.Her parents are wildlife conservers,
and she seems to have inherited their love for the natural world. Blue has always wanted to travel with her parents to their many wildlife adventures,
but she has always been denied her request - until now!
Join Blue as she travels with her parents to Australia, where her Gran lives, with nothing but a phone and a small social-media (Natterjack) account,
ready to save the world with a big heart and a great love for nature!
This was such a wonderful book, it was so inspiring, because it highlighted the importance of nature conservation, and it brought awareness to the growing
wildfires in Australia. It looks like a regular book, but I regret not picking it up sooner. It made me feel so happy, and it brought me to realize - that, each day, we write 'Save Nature' on the very paper we cut down trees to make. I loved it, and I will give it a 10/10 !! Amazing, inspirational, and most of all, beautiful. I also loved that Blue was just a regular girl with big dreams that came true because it makes us believe that we have a chance to be like Blue, and achieve our dreams !! I also loved Natterjack and the great descriptions of the wildlife and beauty in Australia, it made me hope that one day, I will visit Australia. I recommend this book! :)
January 16, 2024
Thank you NetGalley and Sweet Cherry Publishing for giving the opportunity to read an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
The story tells of a 12-years-old girl's love for nature and of her adventure in Australia, where she gets to take an active role in conservation already at her young age.
The book is very well written and sure to capture young readers. It's great how the author was able to include such vital information about the climate crisis and its consequences, while making it accessible to younger people and keeping the story so catchy. As both a primary teacher and a conservation graduate, I absolutely loved seeing this hugely important topic conveyed in a brilliant children-friendly story.
I will definitely recommend that this book is added to our school library and have noted the titled to use it as a class reader for out Active Planet theme at the start of next year!
The story tells of a 12-years-old girl's love for nature and of her adventure in Australia, where she gets to take an active role in conservation already at her young age.
The book is very well written and sure to capture young readers. It's great how the author was able to include such vital information about the climate crisis and its consequences, while making it accessible to younger people and keeping the story so catchy. As both a primary teacher and a conservation graduate, I absolutely loved seeing this hugely important topic conveyed in a brilliant children-friendly story.
I will definitely recommend that this book is added to our school library and have noted the titled to use it as a class reader for out Active Planet theme at the start of next year!
December 9, 2023
Thank you for giving me a chance to read this book! I thought it was amazing and I loved everything about it! This book is about a girl named Blue. She loves animals and is going to Australia with her parents to help them with their jobs and to learn about animals. I am 8 years old and I loved this book because it was really exciting and the characters were very likable, kind, and clever! If they were real and went to my school, I would want to be friends with them. I really liked how creative NatterJack was too and I liked the information that the staff at the wild life hospital shared. I loved learning about Australia, different animals, and all about bush fires. This is my new favorite series and I can't wait for the next book to come out! I would give this book a million stars if I could!
February 5, 2024
What a wonderful book, I finished it in two sittings!
Gripping from start to finish with such an important message about never being too young to save the world.
Blue seems like an ordinary girl living in Leicester at the beginning of the story, who is taken to see her gran in Australia where the story is set.
The hugely important topic of wild fires is the main theme of the book and how so many people and animals are affected by them.
We soon come to realise that Blue is an extraordinary girl whose full heart helps a lot of animals find safety.
It will definitely resonate with younger readers as there are themes of bravery, animals and social media.
Definitely recommend and I cannot wait for the next book to see where Blue and her parents are travelling to next! Loved it from start to finish!
Gripping from start to finish with such an important message about never being too young to save the world.
Blue seems like an ordinary girl living in Leicester at the beginning of the story, who is taken to see her gran in Australia where the story is set.
The hugely important topic of wild fires is the main theme of the book and how so many people and animals are affected by them.
We soon come to realise that Blue is an extraordinary girl whose full heart helps a lot of animals find safety.
It will definitely resonate with younger readers as there are themes of bravery, animals and social media.
Definitely recommend and I cannot wait for the next book to see where Blue and her parents are travelling to next! Loved it from start to finish!
July 9, 2024
You feel as if you’re in Australia experiencing so much in this fantastic book, Blue and her parents are visiting Gran and Leo. With bushfires advancing, Blue and her family along with Archie, a new friend, go to help the koala rescue mission. When Blue and Archie get caught in a burnover with some firefighters, she wonders if she will see her family again. Are they able to save any koalas as the bushfires get worse? When the wildlife hospital has to be evacuated, Blue wonders if there will be a hospital for the animals to come back to.
February 11, 2024
Amazing- just so sad to read about the koalas in the Bush fires, but hopefully this will help others become climate aware, and environmental aware
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews