Unlikely friends entertaining

The Wild Life: A Berry Long Walk — Laura and Philip Bunting (Scholastic, $17.99) Reviewed by Louise Ward, Wardini Books

In a dramatic opening to this colourful chapter book, Wombat is surprised to be awoken by an unfamiliar feeling — the sun shining on his tummy. Sounds lovely doesn’t it? But Wombat it not impressed as this means he is out of his burrow and that is most definitely outside of his safety zone.

To compound the situation, he hears a shout of “Wombat! Quick!” Assuming he is under attack, he dives back into his burrow.

What’s happened is that Roo is trying to get his attention — it’s an overture of friendship.

Wombat, now stuck by his prodigious bottom in the entrance to his burrow is suspicious, but Roo’s tales of delicious berries at the top of the hill entice Wombat to try a walk, something that is usually anathema to him.

What ensues is a tale of opposites. Roo is as bouncy as a kangaroo in a story for children should be.

She’s perky and positive, believing she can do anything she puts her mind to: “In fact, Roo thought she could probably hop over the moon or fluff out a rainbow if she tried hard enough.”

Wombat is a grump, seeing danger in everything outside his burrow and being very suspicious of feelings in general.

The colour palette of blues, greens and browns and the bold lines of the illustrations tell just as much of the story as the text. Roo and Wombat’s dialogue quickly establishes character and the story arc offers opportunity for each to find out the best of the other, and of themselves.

This is the first in what promises to be a series of stories featuring Wombat and Roo.

I’m looking forward to reading what the friends get up to next time.