Memoirs of a Hamster

April 1, 2013
A scary foray into the wide (indoor) world cures a hamster of any yen for adventure in this variation on the creators' Memoirs of a Goldfish (2010). Seymour the hamster is quite comfy in his pen, thank you--until lured into engineering an ingenious escape by Pearl the cat's teasing promises of a staircase made of sunflower seeds and a sunroom filled with yogurt drops. But Pearl turns out to be a "big, fat liar," and Seymour's adventure turns into a frantic flight not only from her, but also from Buck the dog and, most frightening of all, a roaring monster called a "Hoover." The arrangement of Seymour's chatty exposition into 14 "Nights" is a clear contrivance--he supposedly spends Nights 11, 12 and part of 13 cowering under the sofa before the watchful Pearl falls asleep and he can make a break--but the pacing is suitably breathless. His hamster-ish outlook is effectively conveyed in his narrative and in Bowers' low-angle cartoon views of a chubby-cheeked, bright-eyed pet who, though once susceptible to temptation, clearly enjoys the familiar comforts of wheel and water bottle--to which he is returned following a last-second rescue by his human yogurt-drop supplier, Little Girl. "Question: Who's the luckiest hamster in the world? Answer: ME!" Readers will probably agree. (Picture book. 6-8)

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July 1, 2013

K-Gr 2-Seymour, a hamster, has the ideal life, according to his day-by-day memoir. He's got a bowl of seeds, a full water bottle, and a cozy bed of wood shavings. And it gets even better when the FuzzyBoy 360 exercise wheel arrives. Now Seymour's day is filled with activity and the delicious yogurt drops brought to him by Little Girl. He couldn't want for anything more, right? Wrong. When a wily cat starts talking about the wonders of the sunroom filled with yogurt drops, the gullible hamster escapes the cage to discover what he's missing. What he discovers is a dog, the cat, and an "enormous monster" called Hoover that is very dangerous to small rodents. Bowers's representational artwork captures the life of a hamster well, and the facial expressions of the animals will delight young readers. There's lots of white space and the text and pictures flow well, allowing readers to absorb the action. This title should hit the mark, especially in classrooms in which hamsters are in residence.-Sharon Grover, Hedberg Public Library, Janesville, WI

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