Hamsters and Guinea Pigs, Oh My!

One of my great regulars at story time is a lovely young girl who has a guinea pig as a pet, and she loves stories about hamsters and guinea pigs. As I had recently purchased a hamster and a guinea pig puppet on Ebay, I felt as though this would be a good time do do a story time around these cute and furry critters. Lots of fun stories, but not too many rhymes and finger plays. Not a problem. I have been doing this just long enough to feel secure in making them up! We did a variation of "Hurry, Hurry, Drive that Firetruck" (Hurry, Scurry, Little Hamster...running on your wheel...munching on your food....it's time to say good night). We also did the following finger play:

Five Little Guinea Pigs (Fingerplay)
Five Little guinea pigs having lots of fun;
This one fell asleep in the warm spring sun.
This one was a pig and ate all the food
Which put this one in a very bad mood!
This one raced around and around
The last one was so quiet
She never made a sound.

I found a Hamster song to the tune of "Wheels on the Bus" which was a great hit.
The Hamster on his wheel goes round and round....in his little cage. Then he munches on his food and, finally, he goes to sleep each night. All accompanied by appropriate actions. We also did a guinea pig version of "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes":

Guinea Pig Head Shoulders Knees Toes
Head, shoulders twitchy nose, twitchy nose
Head, shoulders twitchy nose, twitchy nose
Eyes and ears and whiskers and toes
Head shoulders twitchy nose, twitchy nose

Here are the books (we didn't read all of them, but they are all great):
Little Whistle by Cynthia Rylant
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a sweet story filled with wonderful illustrations. Little Whistle, the guinea pig, loves his home in Toy Town, especially at night when all the toys come to life. The story is very imaginative and the characters the author creates, all friends of Little Whistle are just marvelous. At night, Little Whistle wakes up and puts on his blue pea coat (a gift from a long since sold toy sailor) and visits all of his friends: a bear that likes hats, a soldier that loves to read books to babe, a lion that loves vanilla cookies. Some nights he takes the train to the other side of the store and some nights he just walks...well you get the picture. It was a tad long for my two-year-olds but they paid attention all the way to the end of this gentle story.

Hot Rod Hamster by Cynthia Lord
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Little Hamster wants to enter the big hot rod race, but needs to find a car. In rhyming text with big, bold illustrations the junkyard dog helps Hamster put together his hot rod racer. There are many choices to be made and the text asks the reader to help hamster make them...which color, fat tires or thin?....and there are plenty of opportunities for a story time audience to not only chime in with answers but to make all sort of car/racing sounds. This is a thoroughly enjoyable read-aloud.

Glamsters by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a very cute book about two hamster sisters waiting in a pet shop for someone to adopt them. On the eve of the big sale, Harriet can't sleep and finds herself reading about making oneself over in order to get noticed. She takes a quiz and then works to turn herself into a Glamster. When her sister wakes up she doesn't recognize Harriet right away! But convinces her that Harriet really doesn't need all that stuff to be adoptable - she just needs to be herself.

Pet Shop Lullaby by Mary Ann Fraser
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The entire pet store is awakened by one small hamster who can't sleep. All of the animals take turns doing everything they can think of to put him to sleep - they give him a bath and tell him a story and tuck him in. Of course by then it is morning and now all of the sounds of the pet store keep him awake. There are lots of great read aloud sounds and wonderful pictures. Be sure and look at all the details!

Then there were my two favorites:

Guinea Pig Far and Near by Kate Duke
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is just lovely. Kate Duke's amazing illustrations of Guinea Pigs are amazing and capture the essence of these cute, furry critters. The simple text is really just a caption for the pictures - near, far, apart and together. Great concept book and a fun book about Guinea Pigs.


The Guinea Pig ABC by Kate Duke
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Not only does this book contain all of Kate Duke's amazing guinea pigs - which convey so much emotion and life - but there is great humor present in this Alphabet book. "A" shows a smug drumming guinea pig beneath a clearly startled guinea pig with night cap flying off his head and the word, "Awake." "C" stands for clean and shows a young guinea pig scrubbing himself, but not looking very happy. Every letter is a joy, almost all are guaranteed to bring a smile.