22nd October International Wombat Day

 

I have written about this day before, but given the CSIRO's new book Wombat Poos Are Square  has just arrived at our library, I felt I had to celebrate the day. While this humorous book is not strictly speaking about wombats, but rather explains the important role poo plays in our environment, it has an eye-catching cover that would look great in a display of wombat books.

Some other more recent books are Abi Cushman's Wombats Are Pretty Weird, John Lesley's Wombat, the stories Wurrtoo  by Tylissa Elisara and Beth Ferry's Wombats Go Wild for Words.

Of course there are other books about wombats. See Pinterest. But if you want to combine wombats and halloween, look for:

22nd October International Wombat Day

October 22nd is International Wombat Day. The wombat is a marsupial found in Australia,  The babies remain in the mother's pouch (like kangaroos) for the first six months of their lives before even poking their nose out of the backward facing pouch. It then still hangs around, living in the pouch for another 8 to 10 months.

Facts about wombats

• The wombat is related to koalas, kangaroos, and Tasmanian devils.
• They have very slow metabolism. It can take up to 14 days to digest a meal!
• All three species of wombat are protected under Australian law.
• They are fantastic diggers and spend most of their time underground in their burrows. 
• A group of wombats is called a wisdom.
• Wombat poo is cube-shaped, but without the sharp corners.

Abi Cushman's book Wombats  are Pretty Weird is a good place to start your exploration of wombats. Then read some nonfiction books such as:

• Wombat  by Christopher Cheng 

• Wombat  by John Lesley 

• George the Wombat by Aussie Ark

Next some stories:

All of Jackie French Diary of a Wombat  series.

• Sebastian Lives in a Hat by Thelma Catterwell

• Wombat Divine  by Mem Fox

• Wombat Stew by Marcia Vaughan

• The Beach Wombat  and The Snow Wombat by Susannah Chambers

• The Fire Wombat by Jackie French

• Wombat  by Philip Bunting

• Hairy Nose, Itchy Butt by Garry Duncan

22nd August International Wombat Day

Today we celebrate a small, burrowing marsupial that is native to Australia, known as the wombat. They are the largest burrowing mammals. They spend most of their time underground in their extensive burrows and emerge mainly at night. There are three species of wombats: the common or bare-nosed wombat, and the southern and northern hairy-nosed wombats.

Celebrating Wombat Day can be as simple as reading about your favourite wombat. For Australian children, that is probably Jackie French's Mothball, who made famous because he is the 'star' of the series of diaries about him. It started with Diary of a Wombat and now there are many sequels and even a prequel, The Diary of a Rescue Wombat which was published to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first book. 

The children at my school still love the 'old favourite'  Sebastian Lives in a Hat  which tells the story of an orphaned four month old wombat joey who is nursed in the home of the author Thelma Catterwell and who sleeps in a hat, his pretend pouch. This book has had its 30th anniversary, but is still in print.

And thirdly, look for and then read Susannah Chambers' wombat stories, The Snow Wombat and The Beach Wombat.

There are many others in our library on display at the moment!

11th May Hairy-Nosed Day

It is Hairy-Nosed Day, a day when we think about the plight of the Hairy-nosed wombat.

This week as I wandered past a remainder book store I saw Hairy Nose Itchy Butt for five dollars and thought I must get the library's copy off the shelf and give it to one of the Kinder teachers because they are studying Australian animals at the moment, and then I walked into my local bookshop and found a new book - The Hairy-Nosed Wombats Find a New Home by the wombat-loving Jackie French and Sue deGennaro. In the foreword and the notes at the back of this book Jacqui Mills the Director of the Wombat Foundation tells the reader that the Northern Hairy-nosed wombat is 'one of the world's rarest species - it is rarer than the Giant Panda.'

The story then is a charming picture book for young children about the endangered hairy nosed wombat and their search for a new home.  Once upon a time, deep underground, there was a colony of wonderfully whiskery wombats who all had hairy noses. They lived in the only home for Hairy-nosed wombats in the world. Could there ever be another home for Hairy-noses?  The story is based on the reality of how finding a happy new home for Hairy-nosed wombats helped one of the world's most endangered species to breed and thrive again. All the author royalties are being donated towards wombat research and care.


Author Jill Morris has also written at length about these wombats in her three picture books about the Hairy- nosed wombat, Harry the Hairy-nosed Wombat; Wombat Down Below! and  The Wombat Who Talked to the Stars.

This certainly is enough books to share with young children in order to convince them that these rare animals are worth saving and celebrating.

The background information and teaching resources to go with the plight of the Northern Hairy-nosed wombat can be found here and although this article is about Southern Hairy-nosed wombats, it has some wonderful photos and is worth discussing with a class.