Hitchhiking with Santa: Christmas Wombat by Jackie French

I'M A WOMBAT.

ENJOY SLEEPING, SCRATCHING, AND EATING.

ESPECIALLY EATING.

ESPECIALLY EATING CARROTS.

Wombat lives a simple life. sleeping in a hole in the ground, and eating grass when he can't get carrots--the only thing in life that gets him the least bit excited.

But then, pushing past some annoying "dangly" things inexplicably hanging from a tree, he catches a whiff of something irresistible and follows the scent to an amazing sight--a small plate of cookies and glass of milk and a large basket of CARROTS! With a sign.

FOR SANTA
AND THE REINDEER

To Wombat, all carrots are HIS carrots, and after a serious staring contest, he convinces the reindeer that they are HIS. YUM!

Eating taken care of, Wombat goes on to his next favorite priority--SLEEP.

He finds a comfortable little spot on a big red thing with curvy runners parked near his hole and curls up for a nap, but while he snoozes deeply, as only a wombat can, the sleigh (yes, it's Santa's, stopping off down under), moves on to colder climes. When Wombat awakes to a novel snowy scene, he catches a familiar scent.

I SMELL CARROTS!

A strange rounded white figure in a knit cap and scarf is right in front of Wombat's nose, but it's the nose on the figure he's interested in. Crimey! It's a carrot! YUM!

There seem to be plenty of carrots in this cold place, and if he can just make those reindeer back off, they are all for Wombat! In fact, everywhere this strange sleigh goes, there are more carrots, even down that strange brick wombat hole, hung with socks at the bottom. YUM! Before long, Wombat and those reindeer work out a truce, as there seem to be plenty of carrots for everybody.

But all this travel and fine dining is tiring. Time for a scratch and a snooze in his special cubby in that red sleigh. Let the reindeer do the work. ZZZZZZZ.

And when Wombat wakes from his long winter's nap, he's luckily back home down under, right where he began. The weather is warm again, and the grass is green and lush. But Wombat finds that it has lost its appeal.

GRASS DELICIOUS. BUT FOR SOME REASON NOT HUNGRY.

Jackie French's latest, Christmas Wombat (Houghton Mifflin Clarion, 2012) has her lovable little Wombat finding his own version of a Christmas dinner as Santa's stowaway. As illustrated by ace artist Bruce Whatley, French's characters are as plushy and cuddly-looking as always, and fans of her matter-of-fact little marsupial, a critter of few words and fewer passsions, will love this wry and charming holiday outing. Santa, his chosen conveyance, and his team of reindeer are mostly shown only in part, and, as are the full, always-in-profile illustrations of her main character, who as always finds adventure while simply following what's right in front of his cute little nose.

Other books in French's popular series include Diary of a Wombat, Diary of a BABY Wombat, and How to Scratch a Wombat: Where to Find It . . . What to Feed It . . . Why It Sleeps All Day.

Wombat Wanders: Diary of a Baby Wombat by Jackie French

MONDAY, EARLY MORNING: Slept. LATE MORNING: Slept. Woke up. On top of Mom. Bounce! Mom decided it was time to PLAY...OUTSIDE!

What is a toddler wombat to do? It's afternoon; he's full of energy, but Mom says take it outside, please. Luckily the little wombat finds a playmate, a dimpled human toddler who shares his water hose, his sandbox, his bottle, and agreeably sets out to help Little Wombat dig himself a bigger hole.

FRIDAY MORNING: Found a GIANT hole. (The toddler's front door) SATURDAY MORNING: Somebody stole our hole! (The front door is closed!) Mom says we'll dig the best hole EVER!

And they do, a hole that comes up right under the house and right inside his friend's bedroom-- a cozy place for tired tots to catch a nap!

In Jackie French's Diary of a BABY Wombat (Clarion, 2010), the latest of her Wombat books which began with French's delightful Diary of a Wombat and continued with its nonfiction companion volume How to Scratch a Wombat: Where to Find It . . . What to Feed It . . . Why It Sleeps All Day, illustrator Bruce Whatley again whips up just the right wombats for this decidely droll addition to the daily adventures of a diary-devoted marsupial from Down Under, sure to make youngsters laugh.

Outback Outing: Wombat Walkabout by Carol Diggory Shields

Early one morning when the sun came out,
Six woolly wombats went walkabout.
They didn't see the dingo with the hungry eye.
"I have a hunch my lunch just walked by."

In Carol Shields' dandy little down-under story-in-rhyme, Wombat Walkabout, it's not hard to see where this story is going!

Hungry carnivore? Plump prey? Uh HUH!

But predicting where the story is going is half the fun. Illustrator Sophie Blackall costumes her woolly wombats and gives them jolly names (Clive, Lee, Jack, Jen, Theodore, and Pru) to set the scene, and then partly conceals the dingo amongst the foliage, providing plenty of fun for listeners to spot the hidden hunter as the story goes along bouncingly in rhyme. Shields uses a familiar plot line, with the rear wombat in the single file expedition disappearing as he or she stops for a closer look at the scenery. Finally the walkabout wanderers are down to two, Jen and Jack:

Two woolly wombats, Jen and Jack,
Thought it awfully quiet so they looked back.
No little wombats? That's no good!
They jumped off the track and hid in the wood.

But the remaining two are resourceful little marsupials who figure out what's going on here, and quickly constructing a concealed deadfall trap with Jen as the delectable decoy on the other side, soon attract the dingo, carrying a suspiciously full and wigglesome swag bag.

"That bloke's got our mates! We've got to get them out!"

CRA--ACK! The dingo goes down and Jen and Jack help their friends out of the bag, and the six woolly wombats are soon gleefully on their walkabout way, this time providentially making use of the buddy system.

Six woolly wombats, good as new!
Walk along together, two by two.

No time for an outing to Australia? Pair this one with Charles Fuge's Where To, Little Wombat? or his latest in the series, Watch Out, Little Wombat! for a double down-under delight.