[The winner of this giveaway was Airalynn – see comments below.

Wombat Divine by Mem Fox, illustrated by Kerry Argent, Omnibus Books for Scholastic Australia, ISBN 9781862918412 This book was selected for review from the Editor’s own collection but we also received a review copy – the prize in the giveaway. We will draw a winner at random on 10 December 2009 and ask the winner to contact us with their posting address. And the good news is – we have one copy of Wombat Divine to give away! To enter, tell us how you heard about Soup Blog by leaving a comment in the comments box for this post. This picture book is a favourite at our house. Everyone crowds around to comfort him but then Bilby has a brilliant idea. (Sept.This year Wombat is old enough to part in the nativity play, ‘so with his heart full of hope and his head full of dreams, he hurried along to the auditions.’ It’s hard to find a part that’s just right for him and when all the parts have been handed out, he’s a very sad wombat indeed. On all counts, this is a peculiar production.

They, unfortunately, will more likely focus on the book's nightmarish elements: insects crawling in the witch's bed, an owl with a dead mouse in his beak and the frightening visage of Daisy O'Grady herself.

The sophomoric humor (a jar is labeled ``Porksnot & Co.-Mucus Pickle''), of the sort that delights readers of Mad magazine, will go right over the heads of the intended audience. In a book aimed at very young children, Goodman's surreal visions, at times reminiscent of Hieronymus Bosch, far too often overstep the bounds of good taste-and even stray into the Freudian, as in one instance where a dead fish dangles from a pair of panties hanging on a clothesline. Her bare-bones storyline, in which she poses and answers a series of questions about a witch named Daisy O'Grady, isn't the problem-although it is surprisingly pedestrian-rather, the blunder is with the choice of illustrator. Of all the holidays, Wombat loves Christmas most of all He especially loves the Nativity play, and wants more than anything to be part of it this year. Just as actors are occasionally miscast, so too can authors and illustrators be mismatched by the powers that be in publishing: Fox's latest picture book is a classic example. Today’s book is Wombat Divine, written by Mem Fox and illustrated by Kerry Argent, a very sweet tale of a wombat, a nativity play, and a dream.