Black Summer bushfires inspire children’s book Brave-Bottomed Wombat

Author and Rural Fire Service volunteer Jody Vassallo has created a new children’s book to honour the bravery she witnessed during the horrific NSW bushfires.

South coast resident and Rural Fire Service volunteer Jody Vassallo saw and heard many stories of bravery in the terrible Black Summer fires — and now she has turned one of them into a book.

The Brave-Bottomed Wombat is her 41st book — but the first children’s book by the recipe writer and food stylist.

“During the fires, I heard a story about wombats sheltering other animals in their burrows,” she said.

“And all of the children, whenever they saw me in my uniform, would always ask me who was saving the animals.

Jody Vassallo created a new children’s book called the Brave-Bottomed Wombat. Picture: Instagram post

“I wanted to let them know that there was a whole world going on, that they couldn’t perhaps see where animals were taking care of each other like the humans were taking care of each other. And I just started to write the rhyme.

“And every time I was walking my dog, more of the rhyme came to me.”

Vassallo said while writing the story was challenging, “it was like the story just wanted to be written”.

One of the pages out of Jody Vassallo’s new book.

The Brave-Bottomed Wombat is a story to give children an opportunity to find hope among the ashes.

“And that’s been the really beautiful thing, to see the response from both children and their parents alike,” she said.

“I think the great thing is it has given parents a conduit to raise the topic with their kids or the kids to be able to have a vehicle to speak about the fires and how they feel.”

A portion of sales will go to Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation.

You can buy the book at: chuffed.org/project/bravewombat for $30 (including shipping); a portion of that goes towards getting the book properly published.