The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles

The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles (1974) is a middle grade fantasy adventure novel by Julie Andrews Edwards. Better known as Julie Andrews, Andrews is an English author and actress. Working with her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton, Andrews has published numerous books for young readers, and she has also written books about her famed life. Whangdoodles was the second children’s novel Andrews published, following 1971’s Mandy, and it addresses themes of The Value of Developing and Maintaining Imagination, Embracing Knowledge and Hard Work, and Confronting and Overcoming Fear.

This guide is based on the 1999 Scholastic edition.

Plot Summary

The novel takes place in the 1970s in the fictional university town of Bramblewood, implied to be somewhere in the United States. A third-person narrator introduces the Potter siblings: Ben (Benjamin, age 13), Tom (Thomas, age 10), and Lindy (Melinda, age 7). Their father teaches at the university and needs peace, so their mother sends them to the zoo, where they look at the animals, eat donuts, and meet a “remarkable-looking” man with a flowery umbrella, Samuel Savant. Savant tells them about a rare animal, the Whangdoodle. He hasn’t seen it yet, but he hopes to visit it soon. As rain falls, Savant uses his umbrella and keeps himself and the children dry. Savant wants people to look up at his flowery umbrella: He believes too many people look down, missing most of life.

At home, Tom looks up “Whangdoodle” in the dictionary and learns that the word refers to a make-believe creature. Tom thinks Savant is a “phony,” but Ben is unsure, and Lindy believes the Whangdoodle exists. Their father reads the newspaper and announces that Savant won the Nobel Prize for his work in genetics.

On Halloween, Lindy accepts a dare to knock on the door of the allegedly haunted Stone House. Savant appears, invites the children in, and officially introduces himself. He then explains the history of the Whangdoodles. Centuries ago, there used to be several, but then people lost their imaginations and stopped believing in them. Now, there’s only one left. Savant has been training his imagination, and he wants the Potter siblings to study with him so that they can find the Whangdoodle together. The siblings agree to the plan, and Savant teaches the children to listen, smell, and look. Savant claims most people don’t know how to see, and when the children tell him what they see outside, Savant points out the colors that they missed. 

The children go home, and Savant confronts the Prock—a tall, skinny creature. He’s the prime minister of Whangdoodleland, and he doesn’t want Savant to visit. The Prock then approaches Lindy, telling her that he and Savant are friends. Lindy opens up to the Prock and tells him that they’re going to Whangdoodleland soon. After Lindy tells Savant about the Prock, the group decides to go to Whangdoodleland right away. To get to and from Whangdoodleland, they need scrappy caps—headwear that reinforces their fine-tuned imaginations and minds.

Whangdoodleland is colorful and lush, featuring a golden river, manifold flowers, and purple trees. The Prock sends Sidewinders—the Whangdoodle’s private security and creatures with cannons for bodies—to scare Savant and the group. However, the friendly Whiffle Bird warns them about the Sidewinders, and the group makes it home safely. 

During their second visit, the group goes to the Whangdoodle’s royal boat, and the children order sumptuous treats from the boat’s ice cream machine. However, this turns out to have been a trap. The Prock and the Splintercat—a mix between a kitten and a mountain lion—were watching the group, and when they return home, the Splintercat enters Lindy’s room. Eventually, he convinces Lindy to go back to Whangdoodleland with him so that she can see his “pad.” At his house, however, he ties her up: It turns out that the Prock sent the Splintercat to kidnap Lindy. If Savant and her brothers want her back, they must stop trying to see the Whangdoodle. Avoiding a big-winged bird called the Gyascutus, Savant, Tom, and Ben rescue Lindy and continue their journey, overcoming the monkey-like Tree Squeaks, the “diabolical” Gazooks, the insulting Swamp Gaboons, and the nonsensical Oinck.

As the party reaches the Whangdoodle’s palace—the Whangdoodle is the king of Whangdoodleland—they realize they must cross a bridge over a deep chasm. Savant can’t see the bridge, so the children go on without him. The Gyascutus tries to stop them, but the Whiffle Bird distracts him, and the siblings make it inside the palace, where the Prock waits for them. Lindy’s tears ultimately disarm him, so the children get to meet the king of Whangdoodleland. He has the body of a pony, antlers, and bedroom slippers and wants to meet Savant, as he believes Savant can make him a romantic partner.

Lindy recrosses the bridge and coaxes a wary Savant into the palace, but Savant claims he can’t create another Whangdoodle. The Prock offers him a scrappy cap, but Savant says the cap’s power is superficial. Nevertheless, at the Prock’s urging, Savant puts it on. He feels a rush of ideas and thoughts, and the Great Hall turns into a bustling laboratory. Soon, Savant makes a female Whangdoodle whom the Whangdoodle names Clarity, or “Claire” for short. There’s a lavish feast, and the children go home with the skills they need to make their world as wonderful as Whangdoodleland.