This is surprisingly uncommon for picture books, in which we’re more likely to see ‘ posed for a photo‘ characters. In this case, she stands for your typical wombat, doing typical wombatty things.Ī standout feature of the wombat is the distinctive round bottom, which may be why Bruce Whatley chose to depict the wombat from behind in a number of illustrations. Often this is because a character stands in for a group.

(There is no obvious sexual dimorphism in wombats - you can’t easily tell the sex of a wombat unless you’re an expert.) I wonder if you assumed the wombat was male until “For Pete’s sake! Give her some carrots!” A study by Janet McCabe told us that unless animal characters are given obvious female markers then we tend to read them as male. This is partly to do with the realistic style of art. Unusually for a children’s book, the wombat is female yet has not been given any typically feminine markers, such as a big pink bow. STORY STRUCTURE OF DIARY OF A WOMBAT WHO IS THE MAIN CHARACTER? Bruce Whatley illustrates animals in a mostly realistic style, with only a few modifications to make the facial expressions more human, making the pairing perfect. Jackie French could have anthropomorphised the wombat and taken her off on an adventure to save the world, but this wombat is inspired by the wombats around French’s own house. But wombats don’t really do much and have little to report.

We expect that if someone has taken the trouble to write something down then it must be something important. Like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Diary of a Wombat is a parody of a diary.

Diary of a christmas wombat