We met Humphrey the golden hamster when I reviewed “The World According to Humphrey.” Today we’re checking in with everyone’s favorite classroom pet to see what he’s been up to in the book “Trouble According to Humphrey.”
Mrs. Brisbane has a wonderful idea. She is going to turn classroom 26 into a community for social studies. The children will each create a building, and they’ll all have jobs. First, though, they need a name for their community, and they choose Humphreyville. Humphrey is so excited, he can’t stand it! A whole town, named just for him! And there’s a class newspaper, too, named the Humphreyville Herald.
He still gets to go home with the students on the weekends, and his first visit is to the home of Sit-Still-Seth. At least, that’s what Humphrey always thought his name was – Mrs. Brisbane sure says that to him a lot. Seth wiggles and squirms and has the hardest time holding still. He even squirms at home, too – and it drives his sister crazy because he makes the dinner table jiggle. Finally Seth’s mom calls for a sitting still contest, and Humphrey joins too. It’s hard for him not to even move a whisker, but for the first time in his life, he’s seen Seth sit still, and he notices that from then on, in class, Seth does manage to do better. He just needed to know he could.
Mrs. Brisbane doesn’t know this, but Humphrey can get out of his cage. One night he goes for a little stroll around the classroom and the janitor comes in before he makes it back inside. The janitor tells Mrs. Brisbane that Humphrey was loose, and Miranda, the little girl who was in charge of taking care of him, gets in trouble for leaving his cage open and loses her job. Humphrey doesn’t know what to do. He hates to see Miranda cry, but if he shows Mrs. Brisbane that he got out by himself, he’ll lose his freedom because she’ll have the lock repaired. Humphrey struggles with this choice.
Meanwhile, he goes home with Mandy and discovers why Mandy’s been having such a hard time concentrating in class. Her father has lost his job, her mother has taken the night shift, and a lot of the care of the family has fallen to Mandy. Humphrey helps find Mandy’s father a job, and Mandy’s mother is able to stay home. This portion of the book was a little more mature in theme, and you may want to sit down with your intermediate reader and help them understand that being out of work is very stressful and that Mandy’s parents don’t mean to be unkind to each other, but that they reacting out of strain.
(This book was published in 2007 by G.P. Putnam’s Sons.)
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Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat
How to be Cool in the Third Grade