Warambi

Aleesah Darlison (author)

Andrew Plant (illustrator)

Working Title Press, Australia: July 2011

ISBN: 9781921504280

Genres: animals, factual text, picture book, non-fiction

Issues: environment, endangered species

Warambi is born into a colony of baby bent-wing bats, a vulnerable species; she must learn the skills that will help her survive. All goes well until the colony's habitat is damaged by the arrival of a bulldozer. Warambi, still very young and inexperienced, is separated from her family. Will she live long enough to find her way back?

The simplicity of Aleesah Darlison's text is its greatest strength, as the short, factual sentences work well to strongly evoke the little bat's life amongst the colony: '[Warambi] learned to see with her ears by making high-pitched clicks and listening as the echoes bounced back. She learned to cruise the sky searching for moths and beetles and other flying insects which she trapped in her teeth.' Similarly concise lines project the shock and confusion experienced by the animals when humans invade: 'Inside the cave, Warambi huddled closer to her mother. Sunlight and metal burst into the darkness. The pups and their mothers squeaked in terror, whirring and wheeling about.'

As Christine Booth does in Purinina, Darlison uses subtle language choices to create an emotional connection between the reader and the bats but does this without anthropomorphising, a sentimental error too often made by less skilful writers. Similarly, Darlison portrays the confusing contradiction of humanity – those who destroy and those who protect – reminding readers that we can choose whether to help or hinder the creatures that share our planet.

Andrew Plant's acrylic illustrations are beautiful, drawing the reader into Warambi's environment, projecting the vulnerability of the bent-wing bats and their habitat, and using his images to emphasise the thoughtless destructiveness of many humans. Clever use of colour reinforces the serenity of the natural environment as opposed to the violent intrusion of mankind and its machines.

The endpapers of this thought-provoking text are worth reading, being packed with facts relating to bent-wing bats, their life cycle, home environment and threats to their existence, habitat destruction being the principle problem.

Warambi is an interesting book to use with Science units about endangered Australian animals or HSIE units relating to social and political attitudes towards the environment.