Ratha Tep
"What a delightful picture book. Competition, collaboration, wombats! The illustrations are bold and hilarious, the text is full of humor and heart. Like the wombats, they work together to make something wonderful." – COREY R. TABOR, author/illustrator of the 2022 Caldecott Honor Book Mel Fell
"Wally the World’s Greatest Piano-Playing Wombat is a charming story about competitiveness and creativity, told with sly humor and wit. It definitely resonated with us as artists, and its message will resonate with any budding artist, musician, or competitive creative. Both the illustrations and text are a delight." – THE FAN BROTHERS, authors/illustrators of the 2021 New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children's Book It Fell From the Sky
"This rollicking fable will resonate with aficionados, dilettantes, and prodigies everywhere." – KIRKUS REVIEWS
WALLY
THE WORLD'S GREATEST PIANO-PLAYING WOMBAT
Art by Camilla Pintonato
AUTHOR | JOURNALIST | STORYTELLER
Ratha Tep is a frequent contributor to The New York Times, where she's written cover features for the Travel section on Virginia Woolf’s childhood in Cornwall and Truman Capote’s early years along the Mediterranean. She's also hunted down the best boeuf bourguignon in Burgundy for a cover story for The Wall Street Journal's Off Duty section, and has written about, among other things, hobbit holes in Switzerland, W. B. Yeats, and popcorn. Wally the World's Greatest Piano-Playing Wombat (Princeton Architectural Press, October 2022) is her debut picture book.
Ratha created Max's Boat as a deep-dive into the world of picture books. Each week, one picture book writer or illustrator will share their favorite picture books and explain their picks in an interview.