What Stars are For by Margeaux Davis

Henry is a snail who loves to explore his environment during the night. He can burrow under fallen leaves, find water drops on spider webs, marvel at the construction of nest built by birds using twigs and he can see all of this because the moon lights his way. 

"But what are stars for? he would whisper to no one at all."

Because Henry has an unanswered question he decides to venture out in daylight and ask his question. The bee has no time for questions like this. The kookaburra thinks this is a ridiculous question. All the bandicoot can see is food - Henry quickly hides. Luckily there is someone wise who can help. That night Henry sees a wombat gazing up at the sky. He bravely asks his question one more time.

"Stars are for looking at together."

Sometimes in our rush to read a new book we forget to stop and look at other parts of the book such as the end papers and page layouts and colour palette. All of these features are beautifully designed in this book. You also need to stretch out the cover to see the front and back - the snail (his name is Henry) and on the back the wombat (her name is Celeste). This is also an example of a quiet story. Many years ago Mark McLeod talked about the importance of sharing quiet stories with our children. His comments inspired me to start a Pinterest on this topic. Think about the title too - the question is what are stars for but the title reverses this to what stars are for.

Here are the wonderful end papers which show the day and night setting for this story:

Image source: Instagram Telarahpslibrary

This book was published in 2024 so I am certain it will be a CBCA 2025 Notable title and I hope to also see it on their Early Childhood shortlist. Read more about Margeaux Davis. Take a look at this review. Make a plan to share this gentle story with a young reader today. Take a look at Instagram posts by Margeaux Davis. 

Companion book:

Where does Thursday go?

Here is small section of other picture books about stars. You can search for each of these titles using my side bar:

Wombat by Christopher Cheng illustrated by Liz Duthie

This volume offers a solid combination of story and information. Wombats’ deployment of their 

“bony bottoms” to fend off their few predators 

and their secret pouches for their young will tickle and warm anyone to the wombat’s ways.

Deceptively sharp, like a wombat’s bottom. Kirkus

Yesterday I talked about wombats in picture books. Today I will look a little more closely at a fairly new non fiction book about wombats. This book is from the splendid series by Walker Books called Nature Storybooks. Yes they are stories or narratives as the series name implies, but each also contains a wealth of facts about each animal. These books are so well researched and designed, yet, at no time do these books overload the reader with facts.  Each page follows a format of a large illustration, lines of the narrative (in one font) and facts (in a different font) usually below the main narrative. At the back of each book there is an index and a page of further information. On the Walker Books site you can access teachers notes for each Australian title. 

These books (the full set) should be added to every Primary school library and public library too. They are perfect for class use and for sharing with children aged 4-8. 

Wombat begins with the lines:

"Far underground, where dirt and tree roots mesh, tunnels lead to a burrow, and Wombat's day begins. She ventures outside, alert and hungry as a fading sun farewells the day."

Now read the non fiction text which perfectly describes the cover image:

"Wombats have poor eyesight. Their ears are short, slightly rounded and small. Their button-like noses with nostrils at the tip are hairless and covered in grainy skin. They have course, thick fur, a bit like a doormat."

I also need to comment on the rich vocabulary Christopher Cheng uses in his book - mesh, ventures, ambles, determined, excavating, intense, raucous, antics, intruder, sanctuary, flinch, chamber, and wary.

This is the second Nature Storybook by Christopher Cheng - his previous title was Python illustrated by Mark Jackson. 

Publisher blurb for Wombat: Learn all about the Australian “bulldozer of the bush” in a fascinating introduction to the wombat. Wombats may look soft and cuddly, but they are determined and tough, with sharp teeth that never stop growing, limbs that they use to shovel dirt like bulldozers, and bony bottoms they use to defend their burrows. They can live for years without drinking water, getting all of their moisture from the plants they eat—and they deposit their cube-shaped poop on rocks or stumps as a warning to other wombats. Follow one of these powerful marsupials through a suspenseful day in Christopher Cheng’s engaging narration, paired with endearing illustrations by Liz Duthie and interspersed with intriguing facts. An endnote provides additional information about wombats for readers curious to learn more.

I was so pleased to see Wombat listed as a 2022 Eve Pownall Notable book for 2022. 

Read more about illustrator Liz Duthie here

Here are the teachers notes. You could compare Wombat (Christopher Cheng and Liz Duthie) with other wombat non fiction titles - there are sure to be a few in your library at [599.24]. 

Here are more of the Nature Storybooks which are also called Read and Wonder. I love the way many of these feature work by the best illustrators such as Satoshi Kitamura; Liz Anelli; Tannya Harricks; Anita Jeram; Charlotte Voake; Julie Vivas; Salvatore Rubbino; Michael Foreman; Catherine Rayner; and Tim Hopgood. They also showcase some fabulous authors too. In the US they are published by Candlewick. 

I have added these three to my own (very long) to read list:

Wombats in Picture Books

Image Source: Australian Wildlife Society

Illustration from The Muddle-Headed Wombat by Ruth Park illustrated by Noela Young

Illustration from Wombat by Christopher Cheng illustrated by Liz Duthie

Bruce Whatley's wombat from Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French

When you think of Australian animals which ones spring to your mind? I imagine you think of the koala, kookaburra, kangaroo, and of course the wombat. We do have heaps of other wonderful animals who may be less famous - the bilby, dingo, platypus, echidna, numbat, possum, Tasmanian Devil, and emu. Then there are these which may be less familiar - cassowary, quokka (now famous in a television advertisement), sugar glider, thorny devil, goanna, quoll, potoroo, bandicoot, eastern bettong, black spotted cuscus and common wallaroo. And then there are some I have never heard of such as the woylie, brown antechinus, and quenda.  

Quenda?  This is a type of bandicoot.  I read this name in a book this week along with the new book about wombats. And that got me thinking about picture books and Australian animals especially wombats. 

So back to wombats in picture books - they are the focus of this post. I am going to make a wild statement here and say I think if you counted all of the children's picture books about Australian animals the winner would be the wombat. Why? Are they easy to draw? Possibly. And yes they are "cute". Do we see them in our cities? No, in fact I have never seen a wombat and yet I do live in Australia but actually I have never seen a koala either. Wombats do have some quirky and interesting habits - they live in borrows, their poo is square, they are marsupials which means they give birth to their babies and have a pouch where the baby sits backwards.Then I did a quick search in Trove and I found 772 books using the key word wombat. Not all are picture books of course. 

Reading that new book about wombats this week, I thought about the ways they are depicted in illustrations. This does vary because some wombat books are non fiction, some are fiction and some a blend of both.

Here are some wombat books beginning with two that are old, famous and very different from one another:

Originally published in 1964 with illustrations by Noela Young

Read more about The Death of a Wombat

Then my own favourites:

A House for Wombats (I do wish this was still in print)

Sebastian Lives in a Hat

And here are some more books - new and old (just a small sample of the hundreds of picture books about wombats that have been published):

Read more about Wombat Divine

Read more about The Fire Wombat

I would love to see this one - illustrated by the wonderful Sophie Blackall

Fire Wombat

More information about wombats:

Womsat.org.au  Wild and wonderful wombats

National Geographic Kids - 10 facts about Wombats

Animal Facts Encyclopedia

WWF wombat quiz

Wombat Foundation - read about the critically endangered Northern Hairy Nosed Wombat

Christmas is coming to Australia perhaps you will see a wombat

There are several Australian Christmas picture book which feature wombats. When people in other countries think of Australian animals they probably think of the koala, our kangaroos and perhaps the curious platypus but really wombats are so cute. They are perfect little Christmas ambassadors.  I have already talked about Wombat Divine by Mem Fox illustrated by Kerry Argent.  Here are several more:

You can see illustrations from this book here

I also found a few other images of wombats on Christmas cards:

Image Source: Etsy JosDesktop

Image Source: Bits of Australia

Image Source: Bits of Australia

On the twelfth day of Christmas

My true love sent to me

Twelve parrots prattling,

Eleven numbats nagging,

Ten lizards leaping,

Nine wombats working,

Eight dingoes digging,

Seven possums playing,

Six brolgas dancing,

Five Kangaroos,

Four koalas cuddling,

Three kookaburras laughing,

Two pink galahs,

And an emu up a gum tree.

From the book The Twelve Days of Christmas by June Williams illustrated by John McIntosh

The Fire Wombat by Jackie French and Danny Snell

 

Every word in this book is liquid gold and every page turn carefully paced. Here are a few lines from the text:

"Everything they'd known was grey - A crumbling ash and smoke-smudged day."

"But now the weeping sky gave rain, sweeping off black fire's stain."

As the story opens the bushfire has started and it is moving quickly. The animals awake to the sound and smell of smoke and flame. Larger and more agile animals flee - kangaroos and cockatoos. Others borrow deep into the dirt - echidnas or seek shelter in underground tunnels - wombats. Once the fire storm has passed we see the small animals emerging from their safe place. The trees are all destroyed and the earth is scorching hot. With burnt paws we see the wombat stumbling on searching for water and food. The creek bed is dry and the wombat collapses but overnight there is a miracle. Humans have dropped food for the animals, including carrots, a favourite of all wombats along with precious water. 

When you see the name Jackie French on the cover of a book you know you are in the safe hands of a master storyteller. And of course we all know how much Jackie loves wombats.

After reading Death of a Wombat (a book for much older students) many years ago I am somewhat sensitive to books about bushfires and their impact on our Australian wildlife especially on small slower moving creatures like wombats. Luckily you can see from the cover that the wombat in this book (thanks Danny Snell) is smiling and that the bushfire has passed - notice the black tree stump and the black tree trunks in the background. The other important thing to notice is the regrowth. That is an amazing feature of our native flora - the way it quite quickly recovers after horrendous fires. Within days, it seems, new shoots appear.

The Fire Wombat is a CBCA 2021 Notable book. I am certain it will make the short list of six picture books which will be announced on 30th March. 

I have talked about Bushfires in a previous post.

Here are some teachers notes for The Fire Wombat. 

I would pair this book with these:

Wombats can't fly by Michael Dugan illustrated by Jane Burrell

Tuesday Treasure

One of my favourite books to share with young children is A house for Wombats. It is the perfect book to use when you are exploring the power of the imagination.

Wombats Can't Fly (1996) takes the power of imagination one step further. These young wombats truly believe they CAN fly and they won't let the adults and their rational arguments stop them.

Wombats can chew roots with their strong teeth.
Wombats can dig burrows with their strong claws.
Wombats can find their way through the bush on a dark moonless night.
Wombats can sleep snugly through the cold cays of winter.

The young wombats listen to these facts but all the while they are collecting parts to attach to the huge balloon they have found. Putting all the pieces together our little pair sail off up into the sky proving that wombats truly can fly!

Here is an interview with Jane Burrell by the Tasmanian Premiers Reading Challenge team.

This is the fourth book in a series about these cute wombats. My only small quibble is I wish this book had been made in the same format as the others - landscape not portrait.

The Death of a Wombat by Ivan Smith illustrated by Clifton Pugh

"Before noon more than twelve hundred square miles of 

bushland will be totally destroyed."

"The wombat comes from a pleasant family, fussy and gentle, slowminded, and polite."

"Everything likes a waddler."

Tuesday Treasure

The Death of a Wombat was originally a radio documentary presented in 1959. Sadly this is another one of the books that was recently discarded from my former school library along with the audio recording (a treasured vinyl LP record). Luckily I have my own copy of the book and I was able to find the audio is still available.

This is a deeply moving story with exquisite language.

Here are the first lines:

"It is night.
The moon is there.
The story begins in dry bushland,
bristling from the rough skin of Australia."

A piece of glass sits in the sun. By noon the fire will be raging.

This is not a book to share with a young child but this moving tale and amazing art should be shared with older groups in upper Primary and High School.

"Dozens of his koala cousins have died in the trees. They were not able to move, of course, but they clung on hard to the branches as the skin was burned like fresh, wet paint from their snouts."

My copy of this book was published in 1973 and includes a foreword by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh.  Ivan smith wrote this story as an allegory on the human condition but for those reading this book today I think the scenes will resonate as a harrowing but also an accurate description of our recent national bushfire catastrophe and the impact on our beautiful animals.