The Wombats Go on Camp (Roland Harvey, A&U)

Once again, the indomitable Roland Harvey manages to capture chaos and bring it in an orderly way into the pages of a picture book. In this book he takes his readers along on a school camp, with all the hectic fun and activity that goes with that time-honoured tradition. The story starts in the endpapers, where we meet each of the wombats before they go on their first school camp. The actual narrative is told from a number of different characters’ perspectives. Not everyone loves being on camp—Alecia, for example, doesn’t like water—but the majority of the wombats make the most of it: they cook, put on a show, go on a night-time bush walk and play ‘guess the body part’ at midnight. Because of its rich comic detail, and the extreme liveliness of its pictures and text, this is a book to read and reread many times. The Wombats Go on Camp would appeal to a wide range of ages—the inherent humour can be quite sophisticated, as well as slapstick, and there are visual gags and running jokes on every page. This would be a great class book and a fun book to read at home.

Louise Pfanner is an author, illustrator and bookseller  

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Category: Reviews