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The Snow Wombat (Susannah Chambers illus by Mark Jackson, A&U)

One wouldn’t normally expect the words ‘snow’ and ‘wombat’ to sit snugly together but they do in this picture book, set in the Australian high country in winter, where a lone wombat wanders about contemplating the white wonderland; ‘Snow on the stockman’s hut / Snow on the crows / Snow on the woollybutt / Snow on my … nose!’ (The woollybutt is, of course, the wombat’s word for the sheep huddled together for warmth.) Other animals spied on the wombat’s journey include a kangaroo and its joey, foxes, possums, robins and rabbits. Susannah Chambers’ rhyming words are directed towards pre-schoolers and she keeps the language simple. Wombats are frequent subjects in children’s books with their adorable round shape, and illustrator Mark Jackson depicts this one’s pudginess beautifully. A couple of times he draws the wombat belly-up as it tries to curl into a protective ball after being assailed by the ferocious elements. It’s so cold even the full stops in the exclamation points have been rendered as snowflakes, which is a nice touch, as is the map of the wombat’s roundabout journey to its warm, safe burrow depicted on the inside cover. This is a sweet picture book that any wombat fan will enjoy.

Thuy On is a Melbourne-based reviewer and the books editor of the Big Issue

 

Category: Junior newsletter Review list Reviews