The Wombats Go Wild for Words by Beth Ferry, Lori Nichols
on June 17, 2025
ISBN: 059371105X
Genres: Animals
Format: Picture Book Fiction
Goodreads

The Wombats Go Wild For Words by Beth Ferry and Lori Nichols

The Wombats Go Wild For Words is about a group of wombats who visit Evergreen Forest, where all of the animals use very simplistic, general words (ex. Hungry, tired, etc.). The wombats start giving each of the animals words they could replace these with: verdant, exhausted, ravenous, etc. and show each animal how fun it can be to use more dynamic language. In the back, the authors include a dictionary of words in the book (which they call a duck-tionary because a duck starts taking on the wombats’ job and becomes an honorary word wombat). This book is cute and fun and will certainly spark great discussions about word choice. It would be perfect paired with a vocabulary activity like the spectrum of describing words on a paint chip. This would be a good read for first through 4th grade but also could be used for older grades to talk about word choice. Since this book is a bit niche (mostly for word choice, no other lesson/bigger ideas, etc.) I would rate it three stars in general, four stars for the context of writing/ELA classes.

Reviewed by Katy Jones, Gardiner Area High School Library, Gardiner