Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French

'Diary of a Wombat'

Written by Jackie French

& illustrated by Bruce Whatley

The book ‘Diary of a Wombat’ by Jackie French is a delightfully humorous story about a wombat. The wombat has new neighbours move in (humans) and the wombat trains the humans to give him treats on demand. French (2003) does not write much text within the book, as the books viewpoints come from the perfectly illustrated pictures.

This book would be a perfect engagement book about Australian animals as the wombat is an Australian animal.

This book is using the week days to indicate time and features of a typical day such as morning, afternoon and evening. As this book is essentially a wombat’s diary it is written in first person from the perspective of the wombat.

Throughout the book the reader has multiple perspectives as the illustrations show more than the text reads. Essentially the story is told from the viewpoint of the illustrations. There is more of the story being told in the illustrations then there is in the text. Within the illustrations, rather than being a visual reference for the events described in the text, is instead essentially a new story being told.