The Wombles by Elisabeth Beresford

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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

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