Why Mara Wilson Agreed to Voice the Audiobook for Katherine Applegate's Wombat Waiting

Mara Wilson and Katherine Applegate.Credit : 

Elizabeth Weinberg; courtesy of Katherine Applegate

Why Mara Wilson Agreed to Voice the Audiobook for Katherine Applegate's Wombat Waiting

The new book from the author of the 'Animorphs' and 'Everworld' series follows a dog who's displaced by wildfires and looking for her person

By Victoria Edel 

 

Published on May 12, 2026 12:24PM EDT

When Mara Wilson had the opportunity to record an audiobook from the mind of Katherine Applegate, she knew she had to say yes.

“The Everworld books, the book series she did after Animorphs, those books were everything to me in middle school,” Wilson tells PEOPLE. Beginning in 1996, Applegate, 69, and her husband Michael Grant began publishing the Animorphs books. Their 12-book Everworld series ran from 1999 to 2001.   

“I got all my friends to read them and I was very into mythology and they were all about mythology,” Wilson, 38, says. “And I loved the characters so much and I think they were also astonishingly prescient.”

“And then I got an email saying, ‘Would you like to do another book by Katherine Applegate?' And I said, ‘Yes, of course,' ” Wilson says. 

Mara Wilson.

Elizabeth Weinberg

That book is Wombat Waiting, in bookstores now. The middle-grade novel tells the story of Wombat — who is actually not a wombat, but a dog — who ends up in a shelter after wildfires sweep through the local area. Wombat believes someone is waiting for her; they just haven't met yet. At the same time, a boy named Henry, who also had to evacuate, is afraid of dogs.

Applegate tells PEOPLE that when she listened to Wilson's recording, she was “blown away.”

Katherine Applegate.

courtesy of Katherine Applegate

“As soon as we heard your voice, we knew it had to be [Wilson]. It's just so soothing and lyrical and musical. It's absolute joy to listen to,” she says.

Wilson says that she quickly connected with the material of the book, too. “I grew up in Los Angeles and I grew up in Burbank, California where the hills did catch fire,” she explains. Brush fires were “a fact of life.” Last year's wildfires, which devastated Los Angeles, were “unlike anything any of us had ever seen,” Wilson says, and some of her friends lost their homes, schools and places of worship. 

Reading Wombat Waiting made her “tear up,” she says. “I think the message of the book is sometimes you have to wait. Sometimes things are traumatic and difficult, and sometimes you don't get over them right away and sometimes you have to wait, but things will get better, and beautiful things are around the corner.”

Applegate shares that she had lived in Los Angeles and remembers seeing the “sky turn that horrible shade of orange” and hearing “endless sirens.” 

“It is just so horrific,” she says. She wanted to address the fires — and the incredible uncertainty it's caused for so many children — but “in a really gentle way.” She says, “I like to talk about hard things and try to find some hope in them.” Her “sweet spot” is often in stories for third and fourth graders because that's “when you're starting to grapple with the reality of a really complex world that's run by crazy adults.”

'Wombat Waiting'.

Harpercollins Children's Books

Wilson says reading Applegate's words is “everything my 12-year-old self wanted.” Applegate's books, she says, are unafraid of dealing with “really complex issues” in a way that speaks to children. She relates especially to Henry, who's “a little bit scared of dogs” but is eventually able to connect with Wombat.

“I was an anxious child and I think that children who have gone through difficult things are going to be anxious, they're going to be sad, and it's about being afraid, but being able to learn and being able to connect,” Wilson says. “I was a little afraid of dogs, like Henry, when I was a kid. And then I grew up and came to love dogs. So I think that also shows that things can change. And that people can change.” She calls the book “very cathartic” to read.

Applegate, whose dozens of books include the Newbery Award-winning The One and Only Ivan, admits that she's often working through her own anxiety when she writes. “It's a wonderful thing about writing, it helps you make sense of things that you sometimes are having a hard time grappling with,” she explains.

And even her older titles live on with her beloved readers. Applegate adds, “It's so funny. When I do book events, invariably at the end of the line, there'll be a 30-something with a bunch of well-worn Everworlds in hand. So it's always so gratifying.”

Wombat Waiting and its audiobook are on sale now, wherever books are 

PEOPLE