Time Travelling with a Hamster

Great writing and reading

Thoroughly enjoying trading this book to my 8 year old. Educational and enjoyable.

My 11 years old daughter liked it very much

My eleven year old is a voracious reader and absolutely loved this story of would-be heroic hamster trying to save the day. Clean and fun and even a plot twist we didn't see coming. Well done!

Nerve shredding yet so so interesting. number one favorite book of all time! Get this book no matter what! Love it!

Great book loved it. I couldn't stop reading it. So many cliff hangers. I loved the ending. Allen shear was also a great character in the story.

I couldn't put it down, absolutely recommend!

My son is dyslexic so I still read to him at night. We are always looking for complex stories for kids, and this book delivers. Even I love reading this book.

I loved the story of this book and it definitely had my son and I hooked. However I found some of the language in it not very appropriate and there were words that I don’t want my son to hear or use within it. It has a reading age of 9 on it but I would say it’s more suitable to 11+ so please do be aware if you are considering it for a younger reader.

The novel's protagonist is a boy named Al who lives with his mum, stepdad, and stepsister, and is particularly close to his paternal grandfather, Grandpa Byron. Al's father died before the narrative begins and the story is basically Al's attempt to prevent his death by using a time machine to visit his father in the past. The novel began to drag about halfway through as although the beginning was promising, the storyline still hadn't really kicked in by that point and things got a little repetitive. The action picked up towards the end, however, despite its attempt to establish the rules of time travel (which, on the whole are pretty convincing) the novel doesn't establish the rules of alternative worlds which leaves the ending feeling a little hollow. I also felt the ending was so overly neat as to actually be quite messy with regards to where it leaves certain characters who are clearly not important to Al, but are to others in his life, including his mum. I also wasn't a fan of the disregard for animal welfare, and there is a particularly nasty scene with an injured cat which was quite difficult to read. On the whole, it's a solid read, but there are too many niggles with this one to make it really worth recommending.

In 2016, Ross Welford wrote “ Time Travelling with a Hamster “ a children's science-fiction and fantasy book. It was his first book and one of his most famous. It is about a twelve year old boy named Albert Einstein Hawking Chaudhery; Al for short. Al lives with his stepdad Steve, his hamster Alan Shearer, his Mum and his step sister Carly in Northumberland, England. In this book Al travels back to 1984 to try and stop his dad's “accidental death. “ This book is filled with nail-biting action, cliffhangers and adventures full of adrenaline.Al’s character is very headstrong and brave because he likes to try new things. I know this because in the book he gets coordinates to a time machine and he is non-hesitant to try and travel back in time. As the story went on more characters made an introduction. We learnt more and more about them throughout the book. My favourite character is Al’s grandpa, Byron. I like him because he learnt to control his temper so he never gets angry. He also dresses in saffron robes to make himself stand out. I dislike Carly because she made a mean impression of grandpa Byron behind his back even though Al liked his smell. This makes the reader feel bad for Byron because he is always nice. I liked this book and recommend it to anyone from the age of 9-14. I would give it 4/5 stars.Brody - Dosbarth Eagles

Both me and my 9 year old son read this for school parent/child book club. He thoroughly enjoyed it, he found it funny and engaging. I can see why taken at face value but the impossible ‘science’ was offputting and of course no mention of the consequences of altering time, left me as an adult (and most others in the book club) a little unsettled (he fundamentally changes two family make ups). Perhaps the adults just needed to roll with it a bit more!

I loved this book from the very first line - probably one of the best story starts I have read! It draws you in and you can't wait to find out more.This book is about a boy called Al and his hamster travelling back to 1984 to save his dad. It is full of adventure, it's funny and sad at the same time - and a little bit crazy! You will like this if you are 9-11 and like mad adventures!