A Very Wombat Christmas

Lachlan Creagh

Lothian Childrens, 2015

24pp., pbk., RRP $A14.99

9780734116285

Tis the night before Christmas, and deep in his burrow,

Wombat is busy getting ready for tomorrow.

The stockings are hung by the campfire with care,

In hopes the Bush Santa soon will be there.

He’s done lots of cooking including a special Christmas pudding made from his nanna’s recipe and no ghost gum has ever looked so beautiful.  But as he checks his gift list he realises that he hasn’t got a present for Emu and it is too late to get to the shops.  What will Wombat do?  He can’t have Emu thinking he doesn’t care.   But nothing seems to be just right until he has an idea…

Brightly illustrated, the pictures in this book tell the story more than the text in a divine riot of colour and movement.  Written in rhyme to the beat of Clement Moore’s “The Night Before Christmas” it moves along at a great pace that young children really respond to. 

This is the latest in a series about Wombat and his bush friends – you can see the others here  – and it is perfect for that Christmas Countdown readalong.