Hilarious Hairy Hi-jinks with Hamster Sitter Wanted!
More Comedy Marvels from Maverick with Hamster Sitter Wanted
After being tickled pink by being sent not one, but two releases from Maverick Children’s Books, I have finally got round to writing this review for Tracy Gunaratnam and Hannah Marks‘s comedy caper Hamster Sitter Wanted, published in August 2017, so only a little bit late!
Already this has been a regularly requested read from the bairn for all of September!
Let me start by saying right away this is comedy gold for toddlers and parents! The introduction of the hamsters by their quirky names is fantastic and I try to read the long list of them faster each time, much to the bairn’s delight!
“Fudge, Smudge, Bonkers, Conkers, Nipper, Kipper, Pinky, Stinky, Crumble, Bumble and the rest.”
I will give you one guess as to who his absolute favourite is…? Yup..Stinky!
Toddler humorous word inclusion…check! The moment I saw this word I knew we were onto a winner.
The Story of Hamster Sitter Wanted
So two hamsters called Marco and Polo love adventures but they end up looking after the aforementioned list of cousin hamsters. They don’t want to miss out on flying a rocket to outer space, skydiving or lion taming so advertise for a hamster sitter. Each poor animal who responds to their advert tries to take on this humongous hamster task and each time inevitably gets overrun by the hamster mischief. Only Ms Bottomus, a rather large hippo, ends the hamster mayhem by hilariously sitting on them all the whole time, ergo allowing Marco and Polo to continue with their adventures!
“Our troubles are finally over….No buts about it!”
The Creators of Hamster Sitter Wanted
Tracy Gunaratnam has written here a well developed and comedic tale, using all the ingredients a picture book in this genre requires. The crazy names are here, which are a joy for parents to read out loud and get proper laugh out loud moments from the kids. The bumbling episodes with Mrs Baaton (and yes I did baa like sheep in the pronunciation of her name as am sure the author intended) and Mr Yonagi the giraffe are so funny and all add to the suspense of who on earth can tame these hamsters? The bairn liked when Mr Yogani was tied in a pretzel the most it has to be said. I could tell Tracy had put a lot of thought into knowing it would predominately be read aloud, which doesn’t always come across as well in other books.
The whole story is complemented of course by the wonderful illustrations by Hannah Marks, which I could easily see this story brought to Television. Let’s get it on CBeebies bedtime hour for starters if it hasn’t been on already! Hannah as given all the hamsters little personalities on each spread and there is something to see the whole page over, adding even funnier little details to the story. For example, on the last page Stinky is making a weapon to stop Ms Bottomus sitting on them again, called the ‘Derriere Defender’! Touches like these are very clever as it keeps parents entertained also!
Go buy Hamster Sitter Wanted!
This is a great picture book and everyone will find something new and funny each time they read it. Go and treat yourself to this and let’s get a petition started for CBeebies Bedtime Hour!