Elisabeth Beresford’s The Wombles is a cosy classic for 7 year olds about the very tidy creatures who live under Wimbledon Common.<\/p>\n
This is where the Wombles began, and it starts with young Bungo. He’s just old enough to work, which means going up to the Common to tidy up after Human Beings. (They are, as Tobermory grumbles, “an untidy lot”.)<\/p>\n
Every Womble picks their own name from Great Uncle Bulgaria’s enormous old atlas. Bungo shut his eyes and pointed. “Silly sort of name,” says Great Uncle Bulgaria, which rather takes the shine off Bungo’s big day.<\/p>\n
Bungo is quite sure he’s the bravest Womble ever. Then a Dalmatian comes bounding across the grass and he’s up a tree in seconds!<\/p>\n
Each chapter is its own little adventure. Orinoco, who’s very fond of food and forty winks, opens a big black umbrella in a gale and gets blown right up into the sky. When Bungo fishes him out of the lake and asks if he’s dead, Orinoco says “Yes”. Tobermory runs a workshop stacked with everything people have ever dropped. And big, gentle Tomsk, who nobody listens to, is the only one who notices the ground is moving in the rain.<\/p>\n
It’s SUCH a lovely read-aloud. The Wombles bicker and boast and learn their lessons in a very gentle way. Great Uncle Bulgaria has two pairs of glasses, one for reading The Times and one for looking at naughty young Wombles (it makes his eyes look ENORMOUS). Who wouldn’t want to live in a burrow with a workshop full of treasures?<\/p>\n
There’s a sweet message tucked in about looking after the places we share, without it ever feeling preachy. Picking up litter has never sounded so exciting.<\/p>\n
One small thing to flag. In one telling-off Tobermory knocks two young Wombles’ heads together, and they see coloured lights for a moment. It’s played for laughs, but you might want to raise an eyebrow at it together.<\/p>\n
If your reader loves animals with their own snug little world, and a story that’s funny rather than scary, this is a great place to start.<\/p>\n
If they’re after more creatures who find something odd and bring it home, try Finn Family Moomintroll. Moomintroll and his friends find a tall black hat on top of a mountain and use it as a waste-paper basket, with some very strange results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Elisabeth Beresford’s The Wombles is a cosy classic for 7 year olds about the very tidy creatures who live under Wimbledon Common. This is where the Wombles began, and it starts with young Bungo. He’s just old enough to work, which means going up to the Common to tidy up after Human Beings. (They are, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13381,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":7419,"lr_next_read_anchor":"Finn Family Moomintroll","lr_seo_hook":"Young Bungo's first day tidying the Common, with a Dalmatian to dodge."},"book_tag":[1045],"age_group":[19],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[283],"class_list":["post-9542","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-adventure-books","age_group-books-for-7-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-elisabeth-beresford"],"yoast_title":"The Wombles by Elisabeth Beresford | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"Young Bungo's first day tidying the Common, with a Dalmatian to dodge. For ages 7+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n