The World According to Humphrey

The World According to Humphrey by Betty G Birney is an Iowa Children's Choice Award Winner! This children's novel is geared towards students in grades 2-5. It is narrated in the point of view of Humphrey, Room 26 at Longfellow School's class pet, a hamster. I found the author did a fantastic job trying to think like a hamster, what a hamster may think, act, and say reguarding different situations it gets put in or sees. Humphrey was brought to the class at the beginning of the school year by the substitute who was in the class for the first 6 weeks of the school year, Ms. Mac. Then all of a sudden the actual teacher, Mrs. Brisbane, came back and it crushed Humphrey's heart. Ms. Mac bought Humphrey from the pet store because she thought that the student's would learn to be more responsible with the pet, learning to care for it, etc. How it was put in the novel, "You can learn a lot about yourself by taking care of another species." It is true. The students, janitor, principal, and even Humphrey learn a lot! Humphrey gets to go home each weekend with a different student in the class, he learns to read and write, he helps their families out in different ways. He also has a cage that the lock does not lock so he can get out and go in different adventures all the time. I found that Betty Birney did such a great job in the descriptions of this book! There are sequals to The World According to Humphrey like "Friendship According to Humphrey" and a few others that I would recommened reading in a classroom or just for fun!