8+: The Wombles Go Round the World - Elizabeth Beresford

Release Date: 07/03/11

BOOK BLURB:

Great Uncle Bulgaria loves telling the ancient and revered history of the Wombles clans to the younger Wombles. But to his great sadness he notices that the young Wombles are not nearly as interested in the history as he is. So Great Uncle Bulgaria decides to take action and show these young Wombles how wonderful - and international - the history of the Wombles is. Tobermory invents some very eco-friendly clockwork air balloons to travel in and Orinoco, Bungo, Tomsk and Wellington are sent variously to America, Tibet and Australia. In these interesting and farflung places the young Wombles get quite as much excitement as they could wish for!


REVIEW:

Having read a Wombling story not that long back in tribute to Elizabeth, I wanted to do the same again for another one in order to get a fuller flavour of the hairy Wimbledon heroes. When this title landed I was a little shocked to see that its original release date was when I was one, so whilst I knew that it would be dated for a story to stay in print it has to have a lot of contributing characteristics to give it such longevity. What unfurls perhaps first of all is that there’s a womble for everyone, may like Uncle Bulgaria, others like Wellington or Madame Cholet , personally I’m an Orinoco fan as he’s the one I can associate with more, a bit clumsy, a fan of sleep and for me the most fun to be around.

Each womble brings something new to the reader and whilst their overall adventures have an eco-friendly connotation, they’re entertaining, the language is accessible for readers and above all else it’s a lot of fun to be around. All in great fun and with luck Bernard Cribbins will be back for more misadventures at some point with these cracking characters.

8+: The Wandering Wombles - Elizabeth Beresford

Release Date: 01/11/10

BOOK BLURB:

The Wombles live in a beautifully snug, well-ordered and cosy burrow underneath Wimbledon Common - the perfect base from which to sort and recycle all the rubbish that unthinking humans constantly drop. But the Wombles' peaceful and harmonious existence is suddenly under threat. The heavy lorries that thunder along the roads near the Common make the burrow shake and tremble so much that it is no longer safe for the Wombles to live there. With a heavy heart, Great Uncle Bulgaria decides that the Wombles will have to move from the burrow that they have lived in for many, many years. And it is up to young Bungo and Orinoco to bravely sally forth and try to locate a new home for the Wombles...


REVIEW:

To be honest we were sad to hear of the passing of Elizabeth so when we were given the opportunity to review one of these magical books of the Eco-Friendly characters we jumped at the chance. Whilst some of the language may be a little dated, the story telling that has always been prevalent recaptures the readers imagination as the wombles find their way to solutions as well as pass on their ecological message.

Beautifully told, backed with reasonable dialogue alongside some good prose and hopefully these characters will continue to fascinate another generation. Great stuff.