The Wombles At Work

Elizabeth Beresford (author)

Bloomsbury, UK: 1973, January 2011; 256pp

ISBN: 9781408808368

Genres: adventure

Issues: community, environment, friendship

The Wombles are now living in an older burrow in Hyde Park and goodness, don't those messy Human Beings leave an enormous amount of rubbish!

Great Uncle Bulgaria declares a Year of Conservation and every Womble in the burrow is challenged to find the best way to reduce pollution and win a gold medal. Will it be Bungo, with his determination to tidy up more rubbish than any other Womble? Or will it be Orinoco with his ingenious design to stop 'smell pollution'? Or will Wellington's mysterious scientific experiment be the thing? And what is Tobermory being so mysterious about, all of a sudden?

As always the Wombles are hard at work making the world around them a cleaner, healthier place. Kind-hearted, curious, hard working and inventive, the Wombles soon find that co-operation is the key to success. When someone starts leaving notes signed 'OW', however, even Great Uncle Bulgaria becomes concerned. Who knows of the Wombles existence and, even worse, has discovered the location of their front door? And why is Tomsk the Nightwatch Womble and normally the bravest of creatures afraid to go outside? Rumours, mysteries and the Great Pollution Challenge are all elements that make for another light-hearted and amusing novel from Elizabeth Beresford.

The novels that did so well in the seventies – partly due to a highly successful BBC stop-motion series – are once again making friends. In their bright new jackets and modern look, the Wombles books are an essential addition to any child's bookshelf. A few adults will no doubt enjoy reacquainting themselves with these old friends, too. Beresford's characters are just as endearing, the Wombles just as ingenious, their adventures just as entertaining as they were when first in print.

Highly recommended.

Same series: The Wombles; The Wandering Wombles; The Wombles to the Rescue; The Wombles Go Round the World