Christmas Wombat

First seen in Diary of a Wombat, the cuddly critter with an astonishingly low energy level and a keen nose for carrots is again on the trail of his favorite snack. This time, he is an unwitting stowaway on Santa’s sleigh, which finds him circumnavigating the globe and duking it out with the reindeer for the precious veggies at each stop. Employing the same halting, deadpan tone of the previous books (“Strange creatures trying to eat my carrots!/ Got rid of them./ Again”), French provides Whatley with bare-bones scaffolding on which to build comic moments of Wombat munching, napping, and tussling with reindeer. Ages 4–8. (Oct.)