I am in awe of Katherine Applegate’s writing. How does she start with such a simple idea and make it work? There’s no complex plot, no twists and turns, and yet, we feel every emotion the characters feel, book after book.
Wombat Waiting is no different. Told in verse, it is the story of a “destiny dog”–one destined to be with a particular person–set against the backdrop of a wildfire wreaking destruction in a young boy’s neighbourhood. As the name suggests, there’s a lot of waiting in the story, and yet, the reader waits just as patiently, never bored, reading on to know how the tale progresses.
What I loved about Wombat Waiting is how easily Applegate moves from one point of view to another. We see Wombat’s (a dog, not a wombat) point of view just as clearly as we see the boy Henry’s and the bat Barnabas’s. Some poems just hold space, reminding us to slow down and feel, instead of rushing on.
The brevity of the verse form, the way we truly feel like we’re seeing the world from an animals’s perspective, and the gentleness of the story come together to make Wombat Waiting a gem of a read.
| Title | Wombat Waiting |
| Author | Katherine Applegate |
| Tags | Verse Novel, Middle Grade |
| Ages | 9+ |
| Rating (out of 5) | 5 |
Other books by Katherine Applegate that I’ve read and loved:
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