I’m a huge fan of Chris Van Allsburg, but I was a little bit disappointed with this one (not enough to turn me off Van Allsburg as a rule, but a enough to say there’s no rush to run out and get this one).  At first I didn’t even recognize Van Allsburg’s usually distinctive artwork style — this one is very pastel, lots of pink — turns out he’s got daughters.  The story tells of a rather grumpy hampster who experiences a series of homes: first purchased from the pet store by a girl who soon loses interest, before being sold to a boy whose dog proves to be a bit of a terror; then being handed over to a cousin who liked to dress him up in doll’s clothes and bought him an outdoors exercise ball in which he rolls away.  Found by a girl whose mom doesn’t allow pets, he gets taken to school where he is adopted as a class pet, until the kid responsible for taking care of him over the holiday vacation forgets him on the playground.  Escaping from his cage in some unknown manner, he finds freedom and his true home getting himself adopted into a nest of squirrels. The illustrations are fun, and exhibit Van Allsburg’s effective play with perspective, and all the scenarios are believable problems faced by hamsters, but one hamster facing them all seems a bit extreme, and worse, there’s nothing to really make the reader care about his problems.  It’s a little flat.