Reviewer: Dr Sam Lloyd

Title: Wombat

Author/Illustrator:Christopher Cheng/Liz Duthie

Publisher: Walker Books (2021)

Age range: 3-10

Themes: Wombat behaviour, digging, burrows, foraging, predation, breeding, ecology.

Wombat is an enchanting non-fiction narrative story of one of Australia’s most intriguing marsupials, wombats, the “bulldozer of the bush”. Wombats have been a popular feature of Australian children’s literature for many years. The Muddleheaded Wombat, Wombat Stew and Diary of a Wombat are three very popular examples, but there are many more and for good reason. Wombats are endearing and fascinating creatures with strength and resilience deserving of our respect and attention.

In this story, we follow “Wombat” as she goes about her business finding the best place to dig and feed where the soil is just right, defending her territory and herself from predators, looking after her young and of course, sleeping (if you are not familiar with “Diary of a Wombat” I urge you to read it, it’s hilarious and clever and Mothball the wombat is quite the champion snoozer). Liz Duthie’s beautiful illustrations capture with gentle detail the vitality and connectedness of the Australian bush. I love that many of the illustrations in this story, including the end papers, are set underground. In nature, we so often focus aboveground, when of course, what we can see aboveground could not exist without the support and healthy function of ecosystems belowground.

The design of the Nature Storybooks series cleverly uses a different font type to distinguish between the “story” and associated ecological content on each double page spread. Thereby dispersing the scientific content throughout the story, rather than saving it for the end of the book. As with all the Nature Storybooks, Wombat, includes fistfuls of interesting facts about wombat ecology and behaviour, including digging, caring for young and breeding. My favourite facts that I learnt from Wombat are (1) wombat teeth have no roots and never stop growing; (2) wombats have a backwards facing pouch to protect the young from dirt as they dig; and (3) the underground tunnels and burrows of wombats are very impressive feats of engineering, up to 30 metres long and lasting several generations.

Further Reading, Listening and Viewing:

• Follow csirogram on Instagram to see some highly entertaining and delightful wombat videos.
• National Geographic Kids: https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/discover/animals/general-animals/facts-about-wombats/
• The Secret Life Of Wombats by James Woodford – I highly recommend this book regardless of a love or otherwise of wombats. When James was a schoolboy of 15 and staying at Timbertop (a bush retreat that is part of the Geelong Grammar School) he started crawling into wombat tunnels and burrows (alone…at night!), measuring and documenting what he found and narrowly escaping with his life (and some scratches and cuts for good measure) on more than one occasion.
• Because cube shaped wombat poo is endlessly funny, the following podcast from Wow in the World – https://tinkercast.com/podcasts/the-cubic-scoop-on-wombat-poop-encore/
• From the All Creatures podcast: https://www.allcreaturespod.com/episodes/episode-255-wisdom-of-wombats/