Cynthia Lord

A hamster, with the help of a canine junkyard dealer and his mouse assistants, builds a hot rod and drives it in a race against some very large dogs. By the author of the Newbery Honor book, Rules.

Hot Rod Hamster

Sarah Sammis

Hot Rod Hamster! by Cynthia Lord was mentioned on the 100 Scope Notes blog. It's about a hamster who goes to the junkyard to build his own hot rod for an upcoming race.

For each part of the car, the hamster is give some choices. Sometimes the book stops to ask the reader, "which would you chose?" and other times the selection is left the hamster.

That interactivity is a good start but it could have been taken further. Regardless of what choice the reader makes, the hamster makes his own choice too. It would have been nice if there was a mix and match aspect to the book to acknowledge the reader's choices.

This book will delight children who like cars and specifically like racing cars. When I was the target age of the this book I spent many an afternoon either at antique car museums, watching my father rebuild one of his antique cars, or going to antique car shows. That, though, is a very different culture from hot rodding.

Hot Rod Hamster

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