The Wombats Go Wild for Words

by Beth Ferry, Lori Nichols (Illustrator)

Overview

"A trio of wandering wombats with a passion for words inspire an enthusiastic duckling to transform her town from dull to dazzling"--

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593711057
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	06/17/2025
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	8.94(w) x 11.25(h) x 0.41(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Beth Ferry is the author of many picture books including the New York Times bestseller Stick and Stone, The Scarecrow, an Indie Next List Pick, Swashby and the Sea, which Booklist called “an exceptionally satisfying picture book” in a starred review, and Tea Time. She has celebrated all but four of her birthdays in New Jersey where she lives with her family by the beach.

Lori Nichols has written and illustrated numerous books, including The Light in Me Sees the Light in You and the award-winning Maple and Willow series, which have been picked for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and have been called “Best Of” books by the Children’s Book Council and Bank Street College. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama, with her husband.

Editorial Reviews

03/17/2025

Evergreen Forest is “a very nice forest with very nice trees and very nice flowers,” writes Ferry (Prunella). It’s also very dull, at least until a trio of “word-loving, wandering wombats” arrive and launch a linguistic awakening among the forest’s inhabitants. With an eager duckling following along, the irrepressible marsupials teach “tired” and “very tired” turtles new descriptors for their state: exhausted and weary. Catching on fast, the turtles realize after a rest and a snack that revitalized and invigorated best suit how they’re now feeling. Inspired, the duckling helps school her own family: why describe flowers as “nice” when exquisite and fragrant are so much more delicious to say? Their work done, the wombats deputize the ducky star pupil with an “Honorary Word Wombat” badge. And when she tells them “things won’t be the same without you,” they respond with apt assurance: “They’ll be EXTRAORDINARY!” Buoyant mixed-media illustrations by Nichols (Finnegan Fox) underscore the forest’s transformation with playful textures, round shapes, and mind-expanding words set in bold black capitals. It’s a read that relishes how richer words aren’t just the stuff of vocabulary lists but splendiferous tools for understanding the world. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Elena Giovinazzo, Pippin Properties. Illustrator’s agent: Joanna Volpe, New Leaf Literary & Media. (June)

Publishers Weekly

2025-03-08
A passel of wombats transform a community with their sophisticated vocabulary.

Evergreen Forest is “very nice and very ordinary”; some residents, like the little duckling draped glumly over a log on the opening page, might say it’s “rather dull.” The duckling perks up when a trio of wombats “with words on their minds” come tripping along the path. Describing themselves as “word-loving,” the wombats tell the duckling that “words are…‘ESSENTIAL!’ ‘MAGNIFICENT!’ ‘TRANSFORMATIVE!’” The duckling watches and learns as the wombats help animals who use regular words such asthirsty andtired spice up their vocabularies with alternatives:parched andexhausted. The duckling is therefore well equipped to lead her own family fromhungry andsuper hungry topeckish andravenous, earning herself the title of “honorary word wombat” by book’s end. Nichols contributes friendly cartoon personae for Ferry’s characters, placing them against a woodsy backdrop. The compositions are minimally detailed, with a small blue slug accompanying the duckling and offering little ones a seek-and-find game on most pages. The wombats’ “wonderful words” are set in attention-getting display type; they literally fill the air as the denizens of Evergreen Forest join the word celebration in a conga line. As plots go, it’s pretty thin, but young listeners may well come away ready to seek out some new words to love and, inspired by the closing “duck-tionary,” to fill their own lexicons.

A merry outing for young wordsmiths.(Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews

"A merry outing for young wordsmiths." —Kirkus Reviews

"Buoyant....A read that relishes how richer words aren’t just the stuff of vocabulary lists but splendiferous tools for understanding the world." —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher