Time Traveling with a Hamster

Al is a kid. On his twelfth birthday, he gets a letter from his dead dad. He asks Al to time travel to when his dad’s a kid to stop him from riding his go-cart because his go-cart crashes and a piece of metal gets stuck up his nose and kills him when he’s a grown-up. His dad can’t go back to fix it because of the doppelganger rule. Al is excited and worried about doing this. Alan Shearer is his hamster. Al’s grandfather tries to teach Al about memory palaces. Al has to break into his old house to get his dad’s time machine. Al and Alan Shearer travel back in time and meet his dad. Will Al save his dad? Read the book to find out.

There’s a lot of physics in this book to explain time travel. Alan Shearer is my favorite character. Macca, a bully, is my least favorite character. He tries to set fire to a cat covered in gasoline, after he shot it. (Al saves the cat.) There’s a really sad part, but once you get past that, it gets better. The ending is good. There are funny parts, too. The parts with Carly, Al’s stepsister, are funny. Al’s lists are fun. I recommend this book for ages eight and up.