After university, I moved to London and became a journalist and then, after a few years, a television producer. Hamsters can tolerate traveling when necessary if it does not happen too often. Traveling can often be very stressful for hamsters, and they do not want to be removed from their familiar environment too often. Non-Brits often have trouble understanding Geordie. It’s said that the singer Cheryl Cole was dropped from the US edition of The X-Factor because audiences had trouble with her accent. Okay, color me impressed! You've heard me praise the wonders of Middle Grade fiction and its wonderful authors many a time, and yet it never fails to stun me how much goodness comes out of the books written for this age group. Ross Welford has penned a gem here. Time Traveling With A Hamster simultaneously pulls together the importance of family, the grey areas we face when making hard decisions, the beauty (and issues) associated with being passionate about something, and even owning up to ones own mistakes. I am so thrilled to have read this, and can't recommend it enough! Just across the road from the house where we used to live before Dad died (the first time) is an alleyway that leads to the next street with a patch of grass with some bushes and straggly trees growing on it. I called it “the jungle” when I was little because in my mind that’s what it was like, but looking at it now, I can see that it’s just a plot of land for a house that hasn’t been built yet.

Time Travelling with a Hamster is written on the elements of adventure. It tells a story of a boy’s dad had lost his father and then later on in his life he found a note that would change his life as well as his father’s. Now, let me put out there that there are actually a fair amount of high end concepts in this book. As a reader who believes fully in not talking down to young readers, I was smitten with this. Al Chadhury's father was a brilliant man. One who wasn't afraid to dabble in science and theory, ultimately leading to his discovery of time travel. Through Al's travels in time, and the letters his father left behind, he learns so much about everything his dad was passionate about. There are brilliant descriptions of the theory of relativity, and examples that actually make it palatable for young minds. There's even discussions of memory devices. Suffice it to say, I was blown away by the sheer amount of lessons in here. new concepts and ideas I’ve got. That is why I am going to rate this book 9/10. How could this book be improved? Only one Geordie word was changed for the US edition, and that was “ha’way”. Ha’way, or “howay” is heard everywhere in the northeast of England, and means simply “come on”. All the ha’ways in the US book were replaced with “come on”. Al soon discovers that time travel requires daring and imagination. It also requires lies, theft, setting his school on fire and ignoring philosophical advice from Grandpa Byron. All without losing his pet hamster, Alan Shearer…Georgie Docwra, age 10- 'I really enjoyed reading Time Travelling with a Hamsteras it is a very funny book, which made me laugh out loud.' As casually as I can, I come out of the bushes, take off the helmet, and put it in the moped’s top box. I pull my collar up and, without stopping, walk over the road to number 40. There I turn straight up the short driveway and stop in the shadows, well hidden by both the hedge that divides number 40’s front garden from the one next door and the small Škoda that sits in the driveway. I suppose if you were being precise--and precision, as Grandpa Byron says, counts--it started when me and Mum moved in with Steve and the Stepsister From Hell, Carly. That was just after Mum and Steve got married in the world’s smallest wedding (people there: Mum, Steve, Grandpa Byron, me, TSFH, Aunty Ellie). I loved the storyline, and it worked really well, and was incredibly well thought out. Obviously a great deal of thought was put into the time travel aspect, and it showed! It is difficult to place a hamster drinking bottle or water bowl in the travel carrier or cage because it can leak and make the bedding wet. If you are only traveling with your hamster for a short time, you can keep small pieces of cucumber with you to give to your hamster to keep them hydrated. If you plan to keep your hamster’s water bottle with them during the traveling, you should place a shallow lightweight dish underneath the bottle’s spout to catch any of the water that drips from it to prevent the water from making the substrate wet.

The whole story is centered around the boy and his grandfather's relationship through good times and bad times. They both had a strong bond of friendship and trust and is arrested by the author with lots of deep, heart-felt emotions. If you were being super-precise, it kind of started when Dad died, but that was a long time ago and I don’t really want to get into that. Not yet, anyway. Alexander Bisland, age 10- 'This book has a rollercoaster of emotions and it ends with a cliff-hanger. I would really like to read a sequel.'

Time Travelling With A Hamster

And that’s where I am, still in my full-face motorbike helmet, sitting hidden in a bush in the dead of night, waiting to break into my old house. Mum’s present is much better. It’s there on the countertop: a big box, wrapped up in colored paper, with a ribbon and a bow, just like presents look in drawings, and I have no idea what it is until I unwrap it and the box inside says “hamsterdam--the city for your hamster.” There’s a picture on it of tubes and boxes and a cage and everything, and I’m grinning so hard because I have guessed what’s in the small box that Mum’s holding, and sure enough there’s a hamster in there, a cute, small one that’s not fully grown yet, and he (or she; I don’t know how to tell yet) has got this twitchy nose and light-brown fur and I love him (or her) already. Next to the tub is a coffee mug printed with a picture of me as a baby and the words “I love my daddy.” The inside of the mug is all furred up with ancient mold.

Ibegan writing Time Travelling With A Hamster in 2014. Itwas published in January 2016. My second book, What Not To Do If You Turn Invisiblefollowed a year later. And we know this doesn’t go well – for when Al fails to save his father, he alters the space-time continuum, changing everything. And then he needs to find a way to set things right. Looking at the title and the cover copy though, I was expecting a light, entertaining romp with a kid and his pet hamster. Of the pet hamster, Alan Shearer, there is very little, his presence is inconsequential, almost an after-thought. And even though there are moments of light and fun (hey, time traveling shenanigans are always fun), this book turned out to be darker and more thoughtful than I was expecting. This is not a bad thing per se but the problem with this is that the narrative voice doesn’t quite decide if it wants to sound very young or much older. El argumento del libro me ha parecido de lo más original, abordando temas muy transcendentes desde una perspectiva muy inocente. La acción y el misterio se mantiene a lo largo de todo el libro, siendo imposible aburrirse o dejar de leerlo. Además, mientras leemos una historia ficticia, se aprenden conceptos tan reales como la Teoría de la Relatividad de Einstein o los reyes y reinas que ha tenido Inglaterra; siempre desde una perspectiva divertida y simple. Es cierto que se trata de un libro con bastantes páginas, por lo que un lector demasiado joven podría llegar a abrumarse (aunque también hay que tener en cuenta el hábito lector de cada niño). Es por esto por lo que recomiendo su lectura para edades a partir de los 13-14 años. En cuanto al final, decir que no es para nada previsible y en ningún momento sabes qué va a pasar; el autor ha sabido muy bien cómo mantener la intriga.

What a delight!! Have been intrigued by this book since I saw in a local bookshop so I was really pleased to be able to get the opportunity to read it So begins an adventure which Al hopes will turn out ok. There are significant obstacles - one being he no longer lives in the house of his earlier childhood. His mom moved miles away into Steve's house when they got married. Al will have to break into his old house now occupied by new owners. The second is Al is only twelve - not a lot of money, no driver's license, watchful adults, neighborhood bullies, school attendence, supplies, etc. Of course, the biggest obstacle is getting his dad's time machine to work. It involves computer skills and following the strange directions his father explained in his letter. But most important, Al is not confident he can overcome the significant obstacles in his way. But if he can change the past! To see his dad again! I nod and force a smile, but as I’m doing so, it kind of turns into a real one, because whichever way you look at it, giving a hamster a proper name like “Alan Shearer” has got to be better than calling it “Fluffy” or “Hammy,” which was as far as my imagination had got. So Alan Shearer it is. My dad died twice. Once when he was thirty nine and again four years later when he was twelve. The first time had nothing to do with me. The second time definitely did, but I would never even have been there if it hadn't been for his 'time machine'...