Author/Illustrator: Charles Fuge
Publisher: Walker Books, $15.95 RRP
Publication date: 1 September 2010
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781862337848
For ages: 2 - 5
Type: Picture Books
About: I'm a big Charles Fuge fan. Always have been, always will. The only thing that confuses me about this very talented man is that he doesn't have a website. Go figure. He really really really needs one. I mean, wouldn't it be fantastic to ogle his artwork online? And revel in learning more about the cleverness behind the books? It's not a big ask...
But I digress.
For the moment I'll just have to enjoy Fuge's books in paper form (what a shame...) and his brand newbie - Watch Out, Little Wombat! is so deliciously fun, it's bound to tie me over for now (I said for now).
Fuge's adorable little wombat, first seen in Vicki Churchill's Sometimes I Like to Curl Up in a Ball, is back again - this time he is playing explorers with friends Rabbit and Koala - in which Wombat is keen to hunt for a bunyip.
Wanting to trick his skeptical friends, Wombat creates his own faux bunyip from mud... but his friends catch him in the act and watch in horror as Wombat is confronted by something much more fearsome than a fabled Aussie water creature (or IS it fabled?)...
Utterly charming and adorable in that way Fuge does so well, this book will delight both younger and older readers. With it's clever surprise ending and lustrous illustrations - luminescent splattering mud, divinely and serenely beautiful landscapes, gorgeous detail and totally huggable characters - this is a must have for the toddler collection... and beyond.
Footnote: the wombat/bunyip creature turning around in surprise near the end of the book is priceless.
This book is available online
