“The time has come.

“Enrico and Caruso, the guinea pigs, have settled down at last, old William the tomcat has retired to his blanket for the night, and Mr. John has gone out.

“Now it is the time to make a start on my life story….”

Those were the first words (and last) of I, Freddy, book one in the Golden Hamster Saga by Dietlof Reiche! This book is about a golden hamster named Freddy who wants to learn to read and write, but he runs into some problems I won’t tell you about… you’ll have to read the book. The main characters are Freddy, (hence the name “I, Freddy”) Sophie, (the girl who takes care of Freddy… temporarily) Sir William, (the civilized tomcat) Mr. John, (takes care of Freddy after Sophie does) and Enrico and Caruso (the guinea pig poets). I don’t know the country it’s in or anything, but it takes place in Sophie’s house and Mr. John’s house. It also probably takes place in the past, but not very far because Mr. John has a typewriter, but then he gets a computer.

Freddy is really smart because he learns to read books and write on a Macintosh computer. He’s also really sneaky because he made Sophie give him a pencil and then used it to get out of his cage. He’s also a risk-taker because when he gets out of his cage he goes into Sophie’s mom’s room (her mom is allergic to fur). Freddy wants to read and write. The learning part was actually pretty easy for him, but when he sees the typewriter he wants to communicate with humans via the typewriter. The problem is that the cat, Sir William, can help Freddy but won’t because the former doesn’t like the prospect of communicating with humans. I liked when Sir William and Freddy were talking about maybe Sir William helping him type and SW says, “If I lost a claw, I would lose my identity.” And Freddy says, “You’d lose your what?” And SW says, “My identity. I wouldn’t be myself anymore. Even a civilized tom is still a tom, but a clawless tom is just a pussycat.” Freddy goes back to Sophie’s place, but he wants to stay at Mr. John’s, so he hides in Mr. John’s bag and then goes into hiding in his house. But, obviously he can’t stay hiding in Mr. John’s house, so SW agrees to help Freddy communicate with Mr. John, to let him know Freddy’s there.

I really liked this book because it kind of stands out with the other chapter books I’ve read. Those have been action packed and agreeably violent; this book’s more like “oh, Freddy wants to read and write, but he needs to figure out how” (trust me, the second book has way more action). I would recommend this book for people who like animals and reading. Also, if you like the book, it’s a series, so you can keep reading about Freddy Auratus the golden hamster!!! I think the book is fiction. A connection to another book would be the Moomin books because the Moomins look like animals, but they talk and interact with humans.

My rating of the book is:

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆= I really liked it!!!
I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

George Selden is the author of the award winning THE CRICKET IN TIMES SQUARE. The main character is Chester, a cricket, and there are five sub-characters named: Tucker the mouse, Harry the cat, Mario the human and Mario’s parents. The book is placed in New York in the past time, in other words, in the 1960s. Chester gets homesick and needs to go home from his fame but has to leave his friend he made in New York City behind because they didn’t want to come with him.

A skill that Chester has, is that he’s a musician of chirping since he is a cricket. On page 118 it says, “His first selection was something he had heard the night before called ‘A Little Night Music.’” A trait I would give Chester is that he is a country cricket. That means that Chester is used to the quiet of the Connecticut countryside. Another interesting trait I would give Chester is that he loves to eat food, in fact if he eats too much he will fall asleep and that’s how he got his first journey to New York.  When he ate too much liverwurst he could not keep his eyes open and ended up falling asleep in a picnic basket heading to New York city and this is how Chester became a musician in New York. Chester doesn’t like attention that much and when people hear of the cricket that can chirp the song they come to hear Chester which makes him uncomfortable. He starts getting home sick so he might go home and at the end of the story he has made five friends which means he is loveable. An interesting part of the story is when Sai fong told a chinese legend. This is the legend, “A man named His Shui was trying to be killed by some wicked men but the High gods changed him into a cricket in return for the beautiful songs of the cricket.” A big event that happens in the story is that Mario’s parents Newsstand catches on fire Which makes Mario’s mom lose trust in Chester but then Chester starts playing mamas favorite song and Mario’s mom likes Chester once again.

I thought the book was great because I enjoyed how a country cricket becomes New York’s most popular chirper in the world and then disappears back to the country. I can relate to this book because I have a country house and I live in the city. I would recommend this book because it is an entertaining story. The genre of this book is a fiction book for third graders and up. I would give this book four stars and I agree that it deserves a medal.