One very tired wombat by Renee Treml

Random House, 2012. ISBN 978 1 74275 578 6.
(Ages 4+) Highly recommended. Picture book. Australian animals. Being a nocturnal animal, all wombat wants to do is sleep. But the other animals in this environment have different ideas to him. His peace and quiet is plundered consistently through this delightful book, with the story following his night of efforts to sleep. This counting book told in rhyming couplets, will enthrall younger readers as they recognise the animals which come along keeping wombat awake, learning to read the rhyming sentences aloud with a teacher or parent.
The tired wombat is interrupted by two curious curlews, then three furtive frogmouths and four peaceful pigeons and so on, until at the end of the book, the wombat is able to disperse them all, and in doing so, is able to curl up and go to sleep, or can he? The ending will bring smiles to all who read this charming book full of poetry, alliteration and fun.
The bold black and white illustrations, sometimes contrasted with single colour backgrounds are lively and amusing, giving a cheeky look to the well known Australian animals, including penguins, magpies, galahs and kookaburras. Listeners will love the rhymes, so much so that they will want to predict the final rhyming words, and learn the rhymes themselves. The alliteration is infectious, so many readers and listeners will add other words to the line, using the same starting letter.
As a wonderful book simply to read or a book to introduce Australian animals to a class, or the life of a wombat, or look at rhyme and alliteration, this book has a wide number of uses, apart from the obvious one of being just a great read aloud.
Fran Knight