As of August 11, 2021 it was noted in The Washington Post article,
The fires raging in Siberia are bigger than fires in Greece, Turkey, Italy, the
United States and Canada combined, with analysts warning that this year
could surpass Russia's worst fire year, 2012, according to Yaroshenko. (Alexei Yaroshenko is a forestry expert with Greenpeace Russia.)
The bushfires between 2019 and 2020 in Australia were some of the worst ever experienced. Named the Black Summer fires, the loss of animal life is hard to imagine. It is estimated that three billion animals were killed or displaced (ABC News, Australia) during those fires. Wombat Underground: A Wildfire Survival Story (Little, Brown and Company, January 11, 2022) written by Sarah L. Thomson with illustrations by Charles Santoso follows a wombat and other animals native to Australia as fire sweeps through their residential space. It is a story filled with possibilities, hope, and compassion.
Deep in the dirt
under the hill
roots grip tight
air is cool
water slips and drips
drop
by drop
by drop
and Wombat digs.
Above Wombat, on the ground, Wallaby munches on leaves and Echidna listens. Wombat keeps digging. In the hot sun, Skink rests and soaks up the heat. Slowly, that hot sun soaks up the little water in the earth.
Without Wombat knowing, it gets warmer and drier above ground. Skink hides from the sun, Wallaby sips on remaining water, and Echidna wanders through brittle grasses. Storm clouds gather. A huge bolt of lightning strikes.
Sparks turn to flames. The forest is on fire! Sleeping Wombat is unaware. Skink, Wallaby, and Echidna move as quickly as they can in front of the fire. Slowly, Wombat comes awake. As the threesome moves toward the hole in the hill, Wombat moves up toward the opening in the tunnel.
Wombat seeks to defend a home built by him and him alone. The fire is taking a toll on Skink, Wallaby and Echidna. What will Wombat do?
Life, as it should be and as it changes for the animals, is described beautifully by author Sarah L. Thomson. Repeatedly words and phrases supply a rhythm bringing us deeper into the setting. The use of alliteration increases the poetic beat for readers. We feel kinship with the animals and their surroundings due to naming them with a capital letter. Their fear and desperation escalates through Sarah L. Thomson's words selected with intention. These words, this narrative, draw us toward a hopeful conclusion, one believed to be true. Here is a passage.
Flakes of fire
sail on the wind.
sail on the wind.
Ribbons of smoke
snake through the grass.
Fingers of flame claw up each tree.
When the open and matching dust jacket and book case are considered, you see four Australian animals caught in circumstances not of their making. (The scene from the front, right, crosses the spine to the left, including the arrival of Wallaby, Echidna, and Skink. They look directly at Wombat.) A range of emotions washes over you as you try to anticipate what the featured animals will do next. The color palette chosen for this scene is used throughout the book to convey the habitat in its normal conditions and in its extreme situations.
A bright yellow is placed on the opening and closing endpapers signifying this is a story of survival and hope. On the title page we see Wombat entering the hole in the hill. Skink is resting on a rock near Wombat's entrance. In this distance is Echidna. Several native birds rest on tree branches framing the text.
Artist Charles Santoso rendered his illustrations digitally in Photoshop. Most of them are double-page pictures, giving us views above and below ground. These are particularly effective as the danger increases. The native flora, the intricate details, ask us to pause. Several times we are looking down on a specific scene, giving us a more panoramic view. Once, when the storm approaches, we are looking up, as if we are the animals on the ground. There is one wordless image except for a sound effect.
Through these images we are actively engaged with the animals. We feel their calm as they go about their normal day, but also feel their panic as they try to outrun the flames. It is never mentioned in the narrative, but Wallaby carries a baby in her pouch.
One of my many favorite illustrations is a two-page picture. The three animals, Skink, Echidna, and Wallaby with her baby, are in the foreground. Their fear and misery are palpable. Behind them, the fire has engulfed the area. Flames are leaping from branch to branch, bush to bush, and along the grass. Smoke fills the air. On the left Skink tries to shield its eyes and Echidna lifts its burned feet as it looks backward. Wallaby bows, her eyes closed and her fur singed.
This work of fiction inspired by the bushfires of 2019-2020 in Australia, Wombat Underground: A Wildlife Survival Story written by Sarah L. Thomson with illustrations by Charles Santoso, reaches out and grabs you. It won't let you go. (It asks you to do further research and you do. Here are two links, here and here, at the Climate Council (Australia) about wildfires. Here are two recent articles in Time magazine about wildfires, here and here. Here is an article about Wildfires and Climate Change found at the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions. At NASA Global Climate Change, they talk about The Climate Connections of a Record Fire Year in the US West, dated February 22, 2021.) At the close of the book in an author's note there are additional headings. They are What starts fires?, If the fires happen every year, are they really so bad?, What made Australia's fires in 2019-2020 the worst in decades?, What happens to animals in a bushfire?, What's an echidna? A wallaby? A skink?, and What about wombats?. There are resources about wildfires and Australian animals listed on the final page. I highly recommend this book for both your personal and professional collections. (This book is listed with others in a Booklist Booklinks article about wildfires and in the January 2022 issue of wildfire books published by the Wildland Fire Research Institute.)
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