Time Traveling With A Hamster by Ross Welford BLOG TOUR!

ARC complements of Random House

Albert Einstein Hawking Chaudhury (what a great name!) twelfth birthday was not what he expected.  He receives two special birthday gifts.  The first one is a hamster he names Alan Shearer.  The second is a letter from his deceased father.  Al’s father died when he was eight, so it is a bit unexpected.  What is in the letter is even more peculiar.  It describes how he needs to get his dad’s time traveling machine and return to 1984, so he can prevent the go-kart accident that eventually causes his dad’s demise.

Time traveling is not as easy as expected, and messing with time has consequences.  Al meets his dad, and grandpa.  Has to steal, break into houses, and lies to hopefully safe his dad.  I’m not going to tell you more because a little more gives a lot away.

The other night at dinner I told my nephew I was reading a book called Time Traveling with a Hamster. I was telling him about the book and he replied, “Why do so many books have a back story where the parents die in a tragic car crash?”   I told him he was jumping the gun.  I never said there was a car crash, but that his dad had a go-kart accident 30 years ago and that caused the death.  He seemed more interested.  For the record this 10-year-old boy reads numerous books where the parents have tragic deaths, so his concerns lack merit! I’ll be interested to hear his reaction to the book.

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  Ross Welford is a master at capturing the reader and keeping us on the edge of our seat.  He pulls at our heartstrings with scenes involving a loving grandfather and grieving grandson.  He makes us laugh with scenes of Al “borrowing” his grandpa’s scooter to get to his old house so he can steal the time machine.  He makes it difficult to put down this enjoyable book.

Random House has this as a book for ages 8-12.  I would say closer to the older range.  There is nothing shocking or too upsetting, but I think higher readers and more mature readers will enjoy it more.  It would be a great Guys Read Book Club book if the group is mostly 10-12 year old boys.

I did use the book to model how to “think about my reading”.  I showed my third graders how I had questions while I was reading.  I even showed them a YouTube video about the Geordie dialect because I wasn’t sure what it was.

Like I wrote earlier, I am excited to see what Levi thinks of this book.  I will have to see if he will fit it to his reading.  He is currently rereading the Potter series. Maybe he will take it to school and read it there.  If that happens I will never see the copy again because he passes it around to the other fourth graders.

Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff

I found it!  You might be asking yourself, “What did Kyle find?”  I found my first chapter book read aloud of the 2014-2015 school year.  As you know finding that perfect first book is a daunting task, but after starting Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff  I knew it was the right one. 

The book starts off with the hero of our story finding out that he has to go to a new school.  The private school he attended didn’t think his academic abilities lived up to their standards.  Albie is just average.  At first Albie is devastated because Erlan, his best friend, goes to the same school.  However, quickly Albie likes his new school.  He has met a new friend, and his teacher is OK because she lets him read graphic novels and Captain Underpants.  During this time of transition his parents hire a new nanny to be with him after school.  Albie is not pleased about this because he is “too old” for a nanny or a baby sitter. 

Luckily Calista is not your average nanny.  (Actually, I think she probably is!)  She is new to New York City, so Albie gives her lessons on living in the City.  Because of Calista’s young age she doesn’t always make the best choices.  She does make Albie feel like he can be successful.  Something his hardly even seen father is capable of doing. 

The book takes place over a school year.  During that time we learn that Albie has really hard time learning. He can almost  get words correct on his spelling test.  He can almost read aloud with out stumbling over words.  In other words Albie is absolutely almost.  His best friend, Erlan, is considered highly gifted, but it doesn’t really bother the two.  This relationship is one of the things that drew me to this story.  I work in a school that  Garrison Keillor best describes at the beginning of every Prairie Home Companion, “all the children are above average."  The problem with this is that when students believe this and don’t achieve greatness etc. they often feel like failures.  This is for the kids that read above grade level etc.  For the kids that do struggle in this type of environment it can be devastating.  I’m not bashing my school.  It is a great school.  There is support in reading and math for kids that are “almost”.  I think that is one of the reasons I like this book.  It lets us average people (Yes, I was a solid C student, except in spelling were I was a strong F student) see other people like us in books. 

As the book ends Albie still hasn’t found his passion, or what he really enjoys, but he seems to be ok with that.  The ending is not sad, nor is it one where all of a sudden we find out the main character is fantastic at something.  At the end we discover that right know Albie is absolutely almost.