Christmas Wombat http://www.fishpond.com.au/Books/Christmas-Wombat-Jackie-French-Bruce-Whatley-Illustrated-by/9780732291716?cf=3

By Jackie French, Bruce Whatley (Illustrated by)

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About the Author

Jackie French is a full-time writer who lives near Braidwood in the Araluen Valley, NSW. In 2000, Hitler's Daughter was awarded the CBC Younger Readers' Award. To the Moon and Back won the Eve Pownall Award in 2005. Macbeth and Son, and Josephine Wants to Dance were both shortlisted for the 2007 CBC Awards. Bruce Whatley is one of Australia's best-loved and most-respected author-illustrators. His most recent books include the enormously successful and award-winning Diary of a Wombat, written by Jackie French, and its companion volume, The Secret World of Wombats, also illustrated by Bruce. The best selling team have also collaborated on Pete the Sheep, and most recently, Josephine Wants to Dance. Two of Bruce's previous books, The Ugliest Dog in the World and Tails from Grandad's Attic, were named as Notable Books by the Children's Book Council of Australia in 1993 and 1996 respectively. Looking for Crabs was shortlisted by the Children's Book Council in 1993 and Detective Donut and the Wild Goose Chase was named an Honour Book by the Children's Book Council in 1998. Bruce has illustrated forty books to date, including a number that he has co-written with Rosie Smith. Their latest collaboration was Little White Dogs Can't Jump.

Reviews

PreS-2-Wombat's many fans will welcome this tale as the single-minded creature sleeps, scratches, eats carrots, and fights a "major battle with strange creatures" that are eating his carrots. A nap on Santa's sleigh provides him with the chance to see the world and discover that carrots have been left at various places. Knowing children will soon realize that all of these carrots have been left out for Santa's reindeer on Christmas Eve, but Wombat is none the wiser at the end. He just knows that these creatures "can be useful for finding carrots." Charming and slight, the humor shines through the spare text and Whatley's expressive paintings of the lazy wombat.-Anne Connor, Los Angeles Public Library (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

First seen in Diary of a Wombat, the cuddly critter with an astonishingly low energy level and a keen nose for carrots is again on the trail of his favorite snack. This time, he is an unwitting stowaway on Santa's sleigh, which finds him circumnavigating the globe and duking it out with the reindeer for the precious veggies at each stop. Employing the same halting, deadpan tone of the previous books ("Strange creatures trying to eat my carrots!/ Got rid of them./ Again"), French provides Whatley with bare-bones scaffolding on which to build comic moments of Wombat munching, napping, and tussling with reindeer. Ages 4-8. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.