The Wombles by Elisabeth Beresford
Bloomsbury Publishing 2010. ISBN 978 1 321042409.
(Age 10-13)The Wombles is the first book in the reissued series,
The Wombles. Those
who
can may remember the TV series The Wombles. I know I can still
hear
the
theme song in my head and remember the cute little characters recycling
the
human's rubbish.
The Wombles live on Wimbledon Common in London, England. They stay out
of
the sight of humans and love cleaning up the park around them. They
live
harmoniously together in their maze of burrows and are led by Great
Uncle
Bulgaria, the patriarch of the group.
In the book we meet many characters such as Tobermory who is in charge
of
the recycling room, Tomsk who looks after the front door and Orinoco
who has
just started collecting rubbish.
The Wombles is a novel and is full of different adventures for the
characters - from growling dogs to flooding burrows. I like its
environmental theme, encouraging us to recycle and the description of
characters and what they get up to - did you know Wombles get to choose
their own names when they come of age by looking in their atlas? I
would
like to have seen more black and white drawings of the characters, a
great
way to see what Wombles look like if you've never seen the show.
I would recommend it for independent readers in the 10 to 13 years old
age
group. Older children (or adults going down memory lane) would also
enjoy it
but it doesn't follow the popular theme of vampires and werewolves
which a
lot of teen novels are at the moment.
Kylie Kempster