WHERE DID THAT NAUGHTY LITTLE HAMSTER GO?

by Patty Wolcott ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 15, 1974

Dedicated ""to all children who are learning to read,"" all three books are limited to a few simple words repeated in various combinations. What happens in the first, as told chiefly in McQueen's muted, nostalgic pictures, is that bear bakes a cake and the other animals (""I love cake. I love cake. Hurray! Hurray!"") eat it up, then bake another for him when they see what they have done. The second features the crudest pop style pictures (of a muddy boy being washed in a fantastic machine) and the most off-putting primerish text of the three (a typical page: ""Wash for dinner now./ Wash for dinner now./ Dinner! Dinner!/ Wash for dinner./ Wash for dinner now."") In the third, Hoffman's flat water color pictures show a group of children searching for Charlie (the hamster)through a classroom crowded with playthings, finding him in bed in the doll house, and then (without comment) quickly constructing a similar bed and blanket to put back with him in his cage. In each of the three, the pictures tell what story there is while the text gives just-beginning readers the illusion of reading a book -- and that's the sole redeeming feature of the series.

Pub Date: March 15, 1974

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Addison-Wesley

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1974

Categories: CHILDREN'S