Wombat Walkabout
Name of Book: Wombat Walkabout
Author: Carol Diggory Shields
Illustrator: Sophie Blackall
Publisher: Dutton Children’s Books – Penguin Publishing Group
Audience: Ages 4 and up
Summary: This is a story of six wombats taking a walkabout (journey) and their encounter with a dingo. When two realize that their friends have been captured by the dingo, they devise a plan to trick the dingo and rescue their other four friends.
Literary elements at work in the story: A story told through one continuous poem in a picture book. The plot includes trickery in order to rescue others from danger. It is told from the third-person perspective, and is set in the Australian Outback.
How does the perspective on gender/race/culture/economic/ability make a difference to the story? The main characters are an even mixture of three females and three males, while the antagonist is a male. Because it is a fictional story, there is not much implied about other perspectives.
Scripture: Romans 12:9-10
Theology: As God’s creation we have a responsibility to love and care for one another. Life in Christ commands us to be devoted to one another through care, honor and sincere love. We are to put the needs and care of others above the care of ourselves, as God did for us through the life, death and resurrection of Christ Jesus.
Faith Talk Questions:
- Why did the wombats trick the dingo with the trap?
- What are some ways that we can look after our friends when they get into danger?
- Has God given you anyone in your life that will help you when you are in trouble?
- Do you think the wombats loved each other like brothers and sisters?
- How does God want you to care for your friends, brothers, sisters and parents?
Review prepared by Katie Todd, Union-PSCE in Charlotte
Wombat Walkabout by Storypath is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
