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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
Fidge feels guilty - is it her fault that her little sister, Minnie, ran across the road and got hit by a car? She is forced to stay with her aunt and uncle and their severely risk averse son, Graham but somehow the two of them are transported to the world of her sister's favourite book with coloured characters called Wimbley Woos. In the course of the adventures they have there , Fidge and her cousin become friends and must work together to get back home with Wed Wabbit, now a tyrant but in their own world Minnie's favourite toy.
This story did remind me strongly of The Land of Neverendings but wasn't nearly as tear jerking, in fact it's very funny and would be enjoyed by younger children, it would be a great read aloud.
This story did remind me strongly of The Land of Neverendings but wasn't nearly as tear jerking, in fact it's very funny and would be enjoyed by younger children, it would be a great read aloud.
“It was such an ordinary evening, but every detail of it would matter; every detail would become vital.” Ok so I was hooked from the first sentence. This might technically be a Children’s book, but that was soon forgotten as I became immersed in the story…
Not only is this book covered by a lovely illustrated dust jacket, the hardcover itself is a beautiful purple and looks amazing with or without a cover! The book opens with a beautifully illustrated map which was interesting to pore over and refer back to throughout the story to see where the action was actually taking place.
Written in third person, we gained an insight into our main character’s mind and my immediate thoughts were that wow, Fidge is seriously grown up for a 10 year old. As we discover that Fidge’s father died years earlier, it became apparently that she had to grow up quickly and is almost the caring figure in the family, through creating shopping lists and reminding her mother of tasks that needed completing for example.
The “toy” characters in Wed Wabbit are what made it so enjoyable for me. They were funny, interesting, totally unique and came across as almost fable like to me, helping our human characters to develop and grow which I thought was lovely to see. Most of the speech in Wimbley Land is spoken in rhyme, which is welcomed and definitely appreciated throughout; I loved seeing what the Wimbley Woos would say next. Parts of the story are presented in different fonts too which broke up the story and was a nice addition.
Despite the lighthearted, giggle inducing plot points, Evans delivered something much more profound alongside. The story touched on deeper and more meaningful subjects throughout, such as grief and loss, and overcoming forms of anxiety and compulsions. I think that this is handled very sensitively and with compassion, and that it will mean a lot to the younger readers that may be facing these situations too – I know it would have helped me with my worries as a child!
I found myself pleasantly surprised at the style in which Wed Wabbit was written; I was definitely wrong in anticipating an “easy” read. In fact, this didn’t feel like a Children’s book at all and has definitely whet my appetite for more and I’m looking forward to expanding my reading horizons.
Wed Wabbit was an undeniably funny and compelling read and with a shocking twist in only the first three chapters, I knew that it was going to be a fast paced and intriguing tale. Would they solve the riddle? Would they escape Wimbley Land? Would they defeat Wed Wabbit? However, I didn’t anticipate constantly wanting to know what would happen next – I was even reading during my dinner break at work! Don’t cast this book aside because it’s not your usual kind of read, you might just surprise yourself.
Not only is this book covered by a lovely illustrated dust jacket, the hardcover itself is a beautiful purple and looks amazing with or without a cover! The book opens with a beautifully illustrated map which was interesting to pore over and refer back to throughout the story to see where the action was actually taking place.
Written in third person, we gained an insight into our main character’s mind and my immediate thoughts were that wow, Fidge is seriously grown up for a 10 year old. As we discover that Fidge’s father died years earlier, it became apparently that she had to grow up quickly and is almost the caring figure in the family, through creating shopping lists and reminding her mother of tasks that needed completing for example.
The “toy” characters in Wed Wabbit are what made it so enjoyable for me. They were funny, interesting, totally unique and came across as almost fable like to me, helping our human characters to develop and grow which I thought was lovely to see. Most of the speech in Wimbley Land is spoken in rhyme, which is welcomed and definitely appreciated throughout; I loved seeing what the Wimbley Woos would say next. Parts of the story are presented in different fonts too which broke up the story and was a nice addition.
Despite the lighthearted, giggle inducing plot points, Evans delivered something much more profound alongside. The story touched on deeper and more meaningful subjects throughout, such as grief and loss, and overcoming forms of anxiety and compulsions. I think that this is handled very sensitively and with compassion, and that it will mean a lot to the younger readers that may be facing these situations too – I know it would have helped me with my worries as a child!
I found myself pleasantly surprised at the style in which Wed Wabbit was written; I was definitely wrong in anticipating an “easy” read. In fact, this didn’t feel like a Children’s book at all and has definitely whet my appetite for more and I’m looking forward to expanding my reading horizons.
Wed Wabbit was an undeniably funny and compelling read and with a shocking twist in only the first three chapters, I knew that it was going to be a fast paced and intriguing tale. Would they solve the riddle? Would they escape Wimbley Land? Would they defeat Wed Wabbit? However, I didn’t anticipate constantly wanting to know what would happen next – I was even reading during my dinner break at work! Don’t cast this book aside because it’s not your usual kind of read, you might just surprise yourself.
A very entertaining read, quite funny at times and extraordinarily creative in terms of world building.
I felt like there could have been a bit more development in a lot of areas. Most things were only surface deep and even though really interesting stuff was implied it didn’t really dig into any of it.
I felt like there could have been a bit more development in a lot of areas. Most things were only surface deep and even though really interesting stuff was implied it didn’t really dig into any of it.
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
When Fidge’s younger sister, Minnie, is hospitalised after an accident, she is packed off to her cousin’s house with little more than a bag of Minnie’s belongings.
After a storm hits, Fidge and Graham wake to find themselves inside the world of the Wimbley Woos, characters from one of Minnie’s favourite books. Wimbley Land is ruled by Minnie’s favourite toy, Red Rabbit - pronounced Wed Wabbit due to Minnie’s inability to pronounce her R’s.
What follows is an adventure of silliness, daring and confronting fears as Fidge and Graham have to plot Wed Wabbit’s downfall.
Lots of silly jokes, some fairly annoying rhymes and an adventurous land of make-believe.
After a storm hits, Fidge and Graham wake to find themselves inside the world of the Wimbley Woos, characters from one of Minnie’s favourite books. Wimbley Land is ruled by Minnie’s favourite toy, Red Rabbit - pronounced Wed Wabbit due to Minnie’s inability to pronounce her R’s.
What follows is an adventure of silliness, daring and confronting fears as Fidge and Graham have to plot Wed Wabbit’s downfall.
Lots of silly jokes, some fairly annoying rhymes and an adventurous land of make-believe.
Wimbley Land has been wun in a wegwettable way, but now the time of weckoning has come, wequiwing a bweak from the past and a cwackdown on tweats and welaxation. It will take an extwemely stwong stwuggle to wight these wongs. . . .
These intwuders must leave or there will be twouble!! Tewwible, tewwible twouble!!
-----
In Wimbley Land live Wimbley Woos
Who come in many different hues
In Yellow, Pink and Green and Blue
In Orange, Gray, and Purple too.
Yellow are timid, Blue are strong
Gray are wise and rarely wrong
Green are daring, Pink give cuddles
Orange are silly and get in muddles.
Purple Wimblies understand
The past and future of our land.
Many talents make a team
So Wimbley Woos can build their dream
By sharing skills, plans, gifts, and arts
And caring for each other's hearts.
Wimbley Woo! Wimbley Woo!
Pink and Green and Gray and Blue
Yellow and Orange and Purple too
A rainbow of sharing in all we do!
Fidge is facing a triple nightmare: her annoyingly precious little sister, Minnie, has been hit by a car and she blames herself; she is being forced to spend time with her neurotically phobic cousin, Graham, while her mom stays at the hospital; and she and Graham have just been magically transported to the imaginary land of Wimbley Woos, her sister's favorite, rhyming storybook entities. To make matters worse, things are out of whack in Wimbley Land due the recent arrival of a tyrannical new ruler: Minnie's favorite stuffed toy, Red Rabbit. To escape, Fidge and Graham must figure out just what's going on with the Wimblies and put things back to right. Doing so will not only mean surviving the whimsically absurd yet comically threatening situation, but learning about themselves and growing in unexpected ways. It's a well-crafted balance of self-realization and clever ludicrousness.
It was such an ordinary evening, but every detail of it would matter; every detail would become vital.
Lissa Evans had my heart with Old Baggage, a novel for adults about a suffragist’s attempt to impart meaning to her life after the battle for the vote has been won, which came out in 2018. Seeing that Wed Wabbit was released just a year before that only increases my sense of admiration. How talented do you have to be to produce not only a heartwarming, unsentimental, brilliantly angry and complex adult novel, but also a heartwarming, unsentimental, brilliantly angry and cacklingly hilarious children’s novel, within the space of two years? Pretty bloody talented.
Our heroine is ten and a half-year-old Fidge (her mother named her Iphigenia, and her little sister Minerva; her father acquiesced on the condition that he be allowed to give the children unfussy nicknames, so they are Fidge and Minnie). She and Minnie live with their mum. Their dad, a firefighter, died (of cancer or a similar terminal illness) a little over a year ago, a fact with which Fidge is struggling: she hasn’t let anyone hug her since then. Minnie, age four, is going through something of an obsessive stage: her favourite animal is a stuffed red velvet lapine to whom she lispingly refers as “Wed Wabbit”, and her favourite book, which Fidge is obliged to read over and over again, is a nauseatingly cheery and reductive story entitled The Land of Wimbley Woos:
Lissa Evans had my heart with Old Baggage, a novel for adults about a suffragist’s attempt to impart meaning to her life after the battle for the vote has been won, which came out in 2018. Seeing that Wed Wabbit was released just a year before that only increases my sense of admiration. How talented do you have to be to produce not only a heartwarming, unsentimental, brilliantly angry and complex adult novel, but also a heartwarming, unsentimental, brilliantly angry and cacklingly hilarious children’s novel, within the space of two years? Pretty bloody talented.
Our heroine is ten and a half-year-old Fidge (her mother named her Iphigenia, and her little sister Minerva; her father acquiesced on the condition that he be allowed to give the children unfussy nicknames, so they are Fidge and Minnie). She and Minnie live with their mum. Their dad, a firefighter, died (of cancer or a similar terminal illness) a little over a year ago, a fact with which Fidge is struggling: she hasn’t let anyone hug her since then. Minnie, age four, is going through something of an obsessive stage: her favourite animal is a stuffed red velvet lapine to whom she lispingly refers as “Wed Wabbit”, and her favourite book, which Fidge is obliged to read over and over again, is a nauseatingly cheery and reductive story entitled The Land of Wimbley Woos:
The first picture showed a group of happy-looking Wimblies. Each was a different colour, but they were all shaped like dustbins with large round eyes and short arms and legs, and they radiated a sort of idiotic jollity. Fidge turned the page and continued reading in a bored, rapid mutter.
“Yellow are timid, Blue are strong, Grey are wise and rarely wrong. Green are daring, Pink give cuddles, Orange are silly and get in muddles. Purple Wimblies understand The past and future of our land.”
“Wead it pwoply, with expwession,” commanded Minnie.
Fidge is a tough cookie, but she is looking forward, with heartbreaking intensity, to an impending outdoor-activities holiday. On a last-minute shopping trip into town the day before, her mum’s slowness combined with Minnie’s need for the latest Wimbley Woos book causes them to be too late to buy the flippers that Fidge so desperately wants. Mutinous with resentment, she kicks Minnie’s beloved Wed Wabbit—intending only to take out her frustration—directly into traffic. Minnie runs out after him, and…well, no, it’s a children’s book. But she is hospitalized, and Fidge—now wracked with guilt—sent to stay overnight with her Uncle Simon, Auntie Ruth, and cousin Graham. Graham is hopeless, apparently terrified of everything and overprotected by his parents but convinced of his own superior intellect, “large and pale, like a plant that has been heavily watered but kept in the dark”. While Fidge is there, there’s a thunderstorm, and something extremely odd happens. In Evans’s own, deliberately hand-wavey explanation,
Fact: when Fidge had thrown all Minnie’s toys down the stairs at Graham’s house, the thing that had happened next—the huge soundless static explosion—must have somehow churned them together, and who knew what might—
Yes: Fidge, and Graham, and all of Minnie’s toys (including a pink and purple elephant named Ella and a bright pink diamanté mobile phone that makes a very annoying sound when it rings), and Graham’s “transitional object” (a plastic promotional carrot from a supermarket, which his rather dippy parents are hoping will serve as a locus for all of his fears and help him cope with change), are in The Land of the Wimbley Woos. And not just in a generic sense, either: they are, specifically, in Minnie’s copy, and therefore in Minnie’s version of Wimbley Land. (The Purple Wimblies, upon all of which she has drawn moustaches in felt-tip in her copy of the book, are moustachioed here.) Much more problematic, though, is the fact that Wed Wabbit is also in the book—and here, in what is clearly some corner of Minnie’s fearful and confused psyche, he is extremely powerful. In fact, he has overthrown the Wimbley King (who doesn’t mind, mostly because his greatest ambition is to be left alone), and established himself as a vast (literally; everything is bigger in Wimbley Land, so Wed Wabbit is about twenty feet tall) and terrifying dictator.
Well, terrifying to the Wimbley Woos, anyway. When Graham and Fidge first meet this tyrannical incarnation of Wed Wabbit, the inherent ridiculousness of the situation brings them together for the first time:
“WIMBLEY LAND HAS BEEN WUN IN A WEGWETTABLE WAY, BUT NOW THE TIME OF WECKONING HAS COME,WEQUIWING A BWEAK FWOM THE PAST AND A CWACK DOWN ON TWEATS AND WELAXATION. IT WILL TAKE AN EXTWEMELY STWONG STWUGGLE TO WIGHT THESE WONGS AND I—”
Graham let out a huge snort, and Fidge found she couldn’t hold back any longer and they were suddenly both yelping with helpless, uncontrollable laughter—Graham doubled up, Fidge with tears actually running down her cheeks.
(Wed Wabbit speaks in 62-point all-caps.)
In order to depose Wed Wabbit, Fidge and Graham—plus Ella, the carrot (who demands to be referred to as “Dr. Carrot”, despite Graham pointing out that the “DR” printed on her base stands for “Douglas Retail”, the name of the shop where the vegetable promotion was occurring), a plucky Pink Wimbly and a somewhat long-winded Grey Wimbly—must bring all the Wimblies together to take out the Blues, who serve as castle guards.
Honestly, I’m nearly 1000 words into the review and we’ve just about sorted the meat of the plot. Wed Wabbit pretty much defies description in that regard, but in the best possible way. It is an intensely weird premise and there is no point in pretending it is not—but then, Evans knows, and is entirely uninterested in, its level of weirdness. The mechanism by which Fidge, Graham and the toys get into Minnie’s book—much less get out again—is never explained and hardly dwelt upon. Wed Wabbit isn’t about believable world-building; it’s about using the structure of a quest narrative (free Wimbley Land from tyranny!) to intelligently parallel an arc of internal emotional development. Both Fidge and Graham need to let go of something that is holding them captive: Fidge, her refusal to give or receive hugs (which here are metonyms for affection and the vulnerability that comes with being demonstrative), and Graham, his terror of everything and his belief in the superiority of intellect above pragmatism or kindness. Both of them, in other words, have their own Wed Wabbits lurking in their hearts.
For the most part this is fairly subtly done (at least, I imagine a ten-year-old wouldn’t necessarily twig). There is one moment, I think, where Evans slightly overplays it:
“But why?” asked Graham. “What does he get out of it? OK, so he’s the boss and the whole country’s terrified of him, and everyone rushes about obeying his orders, but he’s stuck in the castle, he never gets out, he never does anything or talks to anyone or has any fun or…” He suddenly became aware that Dr. Carrot was looking at him in a significant way. “What?” he asked defensively. “You’re not trying to say that’s like me, are you?”
Why, yes, yes indeed.
Fidge’s turn, when it comes, is better managed: having done what they believe necessary to defeat Wed Wabbit, she realizes one final thing is in order, and—reluctantly—hugs him. Instantly, he shrinks, colour returns to Wimbley Land (amongst other things, he has been draining everything to white), and good governance is restored. (Not, mind you, by the re-installation of the Wimbley King. The Oldest and Wisest of the Grey Wimblies, who has by now learned the art of brevity, is elected ruler in his stead.)
Fidge and Graham’s personal quests, though a hook to hang the rest of the book from, are not really the funny bits. Those are mostly to do with the Wimblies, who can only communicate in the singsong rhyme scheme of their book, and whose self-conceptions are entirely based around the assumption that each color Wimbly is only good at one thing. (This is, in fact, key to the strategy that ends up overthrowing Wed Wabbit, but I won’t spoil everything for you.) The rhyming provides almost infinite opportunities for wit, and Evans takes full advantage of them. The Wimbley King’s apathy, for instance, is delightfully articulated by the fact that he frequently can’t be bothered to think of end rhymes:
“Sorry, I didn’t hear your question./This muesli’s rather good./Bim bestion.”
When Wimbley Land is freed, it’s not just from Wed Wabbit, but from the shackles of trochaic tetrameter. A Pink Wimbly thanks Fidge in the structure of a limerick:
“But it’s us who can’t thank you enough/We know that your journey’s been rough/For such a brave fight/Your talents were right/You’re clever and stubborn and tough.”
“It wasn’t just me,” said Fidge.
A Purple with green blotches clapped Graham on the back.
“One straw is so weak,” it bellowed. “But take and weave a handful—/Such strength together!”
“That didn’t rhyme,” said Fidge.
“Blank verse,” said Ella.
(I think, actually, it’s a haiku.)
The strength of Wed Wabbit, therefore, isn’t necessarily in its plot: even though describing it takes ages and sounds quite mad, it’s in the service of a not-so-unusual story, about how to find strength at moments when you feel weak, about how to make friends and move through fear. Where it shines is in its complete dedication to being batshit, its ability to convince us that yes, of course, a four-year-old’s idea of a terrible dungeon would indeed include squashy bananas and warm milk with a skin on it, because those are the things she hates. That’s what makes it, not just a good children’s book, but a good book, like Pixar doesn’t just make good movies for kids but good movies in general. In fact, I’d quite like to see Pixar adapt this.
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
It was a slowwwww read, didn’t like it, maybe because i don’t like fantasy, but it was kind confusing nil.
This had been kicking around my TBR pile for quite a while and kept getting put down until I decided to go for it as it was going to be the 8-12 book club book for the month.
I instantly regretted it, by it I mean not reading this book earlier.
This is a story of Fidge and Graham in the land of the Wimbley Woos which has been taken over by a wicked, angry dictator. Fast-paced and laugh out loud funny, the only time I put it down was to have my dinner and finished it in two big bites.
There are great characters throughout the book and the themes of friendship, bravery and growth are very strong but do not overwhelm the story.
A side-splitting take on children and their love of children’s books and toys, and the fickle nature of their love.
I instantly regretted it, by it I mean not reading this book earlier.
This is a story of Fidge and Graham in the land of the Wimbley Woos which has been taken over by a wicked, angry dictator. Fast-paced and laugh out loud funny, the only time I put it down was to have my dinner and finished it in two big bites.
There are great characters throughout the book and the themes of friendship, bravery and growth are very strong but do not overwhelm the story.
A side-splitting take on children and their love of children’s books and toys, and the fickle nature of their love.