The Wallaboo Stories

Book excerpt: The Wallaboo Stories is a collection of six stories: The Yellow Echo, The Wallaboo Clock, The Wallaboo Treasure, The Wild Wallaboo, The Blue Feather, and The Bumbleseed Tree. These wallaboo stories, as the author calls them, are about the world as seen through the eyes of children - or at least as Barbara Guidotti has seen the world through the eyes of her own children and the many children she has known in her teaching career. Each story tries to capture a special quality or qualities of the child's world. In The Yellow Echo you will find an imaginary friend, the Yellow Echo. The Wallaboo Clock reflects the unhurried, mixed-up land of time in which children live. The Wallaboo Treasure is a child's treasure hunt complete with maps and jewels which children love. The Wild Wallaboo is about all of those children (usually boys) who turn themselves into lions or other fierce creatures and have trouble turning back into themselves. The Blue Feather began on the themes of the tooth fairy, marbles and rainbows and then took on a life of its own. Finally, The Bumbleseed Tree was inspired by a child Barbara had in her classroom whose parents were concerned about her rocking behavior in the first several years of her life. This otherwise delightful, bright little girl eventually shed this behavior and joined the many other children who are constantly on the go. The Wallaboo Stories is an especially good book for beginning and early readers. It is an excellent choice for parents of young children as well as school librarians looking for a new book for the early grades.