time travelling with a hamster ending

Time Travelling with a Hamster – Planning Overview

Written by Dan

Last updated December 15, 2023

Do you ever feel like taking a break from reality and travelling to the past? If so, Ross Welford’s Time Travelling with a Hamster may be just the escape you need! This heart-warming time travel novel follows Alfie Edison, an 11-year-old who takes an unexpected journey 200 years into the past.

But before launching into this adventure of a lifetime, let’s first look at what makes time Travelling with a Hamster such a fantastic looking forward to planning tool for teachers.

From high-appeal activities encouraging participation and response to skill-building projects that should challenge even the most advanced young readers, discover why this book is perfect for exploring literature in any classroom!

Related : For more, check out our planning overview on  The Hobbit  here.

Table of Contents

The Storyline of Time Traveling With a Hamster

Time Travelling with a Hamster follows the story of twelve-year-old Alvin Hooper as he uses his grandad’s particular time-travelling device to return to 1982. When he arrives, he meets his younger self, who has just lost his pet hamster, Socks.

To save Socks from certain death, Alvin and his younger self must travel back in time one more time to correct past mistakes and prevent disaster in their futures.

Along the way, they meet various characters that teach them important lessons about friendship and courage. Ultimately, Alvin must decide between preserving the future or protecting the present.

The story culminates as Alvin, and his younger self travel back in time again to save Socks and set things right. They learn the power of friendship and teamwork by confronting obstacles such as bullies and runaway bulldozers—ultimately keeping the day!

Key Themes in Time Travelling With a Hamster

The importance of friendship is one of the central themes in the book. It is highlighted through Alvin’s relationship with his younger self and his newfound company with characters such as Wilson, who teach him lessons about trust, loyalty, and compassion.

Alvin has to confront both physical obstacles and emotional difficulties on his journey. He learns to be brave and face these challenges head-on, helping him overcome adversity.

Alvin must decide between preserving the future or protecting the present. His willingness to make sacrifices for the greater good teaches us valuable lessons about selflessness and puts his courage to the test.

Key Characters in Time Travelling With a Hamster

Alvin hooper.

The story’s protagonist, Alvin, is a twelve-year-old who travels through time with his younger self to save the future. He learns the importance of friendship and courage through his experiences and ultimately discovers the power of selflessness by making difficult choices for the greater good.

Alvin’s beloved pet hamster. He is a significant motivation for Alvin and his younger self to go back in time to try and save him from certain death. His unconditional love brings out the best qualities in all those he meets throughout the story.

An older man who befriends both Alvins during their journey. A driving force behind Alvin’s development, Wilson teaches him important lessons about trust, loyalty, and compassion that shape the outcome of their adventures.

The Importance of Friendship in Time Travelling With a Hamster

Friendship is one of the central themes in Ross Welford’s ‘Time Travelling With a Hamster’. It is first highlighted through Alvin’s relationship with his younger self and their journey together to save the future.

Through this experience, Alvin learns important lessons about trust, loyalty and compassion that help him to grow and develop.

He also makes new friendships with characters such as Wilson, an older man who serves as a mentor figure for both Alvins and teaches them how to rely on each other during tough times.

Ultimately, friendship plays an integral role throughout the book by teaching valuable life lessons that stay with Alvin long after his time travelling adventures are over.

How Alvin’s Relationship with His Younger Self Impacts the Story

Alvin’s relationship with his younger self is a vital driving force in the story of ‘Time Travelling With a Hamster’. It allows Alvin to learn important lessons about trust, loyalty, and compassion that help him grow and develop. Their bond inspires other characters like Wilson to open up and share their experiences.

Through their journey together, both Alvins are reminded of how powerful friendship can be and how it can help them face even the toughest challenges. Ultimately, this relationship allows Alvin to discover the power of selflessness and sacrifice for the greater good.

Learning Opportunities From ‘Time Travelling With a Hamster’ for Teachers

• The importance of trust and loyalty in friendships
• How compassion and understanding can help us heal from difficult situations
• The power of selflessness and sacrifice for the greater good
• Taking responsibility for our actions, even when it’s daunting
• Using our resources wisely and making wise decisions
• Appreciating the beauty and value of old-fashioned traditions
• Understanding how individual choices can affect our broader communities

Lesson Plans

Students will learn why trust and loyalty are essential in friendships.

Introduction:

Share the story of Time Travelling With a Hamster to introduce the concept of trust and loyalty. Discuss how Alvin and his younger self rely on each other throughout their journey, despite difficult times.

Main Teaching Points:

• Explain why trust is essential to friendship or any relationship, outlining specific examples from the story.
• Highlight the importance of being trustworthy and loyal. Emphasize how it can lead to stronger relationships with others.
• Provide examples of how betrayal can hurt relationships.
• Discuss how we must actively create trusting relationships for them to be meaningful, successful, and long-lasting.

Key Questions:

• What does it mean to be trustworthy and loyal?
• Why is it essential for us to build trusting relationships?
• What can we do if someone breaks our trust?

Reflection :

Ask students to consider their relationships and evaluate how much trust and loyalty exists between themselves and their friends, family, or peers. Please encourage them to think about what they can do personally to strengthen these relationships in meaningful ways.

Lesson Plan 2

Students will learn how compassion and understanding can help us heal from difficult situations.

Share the story of Time Travelling With a Hamster to introduce the concept of compassion and understanding. Discuss how Alvin’s younger self can take charge, even in the face of uncertainty, because he understands what his older self is going through.

• Explain why compassion and understanding are essential for healing, outlining specific examples from the story.
• Highlight how even small acts of kindness can make a big difference during a difficult time.
• Provide examples of how a lack of understanding can lead to further pain or isolation in distress.
• Discuss how we need to actively strive for greater connection and empathy with others to heal during challenging times.
• What does it mean to be compassionate and understanding?
• Why is it essential for us to show love and support during challenging moments?
• Are there any risks involved when we offer our comfort or performance?

Reflection:

Ask students to think about their experiences dealing with hardship or demanding times and evaluate if they felt comforted by someone else’s compassion or understanding. Please encourage them to consider what they could have done differently in those moments to create lasting change and healing within themselves and their communities.

Summary of Resources

Time Travelling With a Hamster (Teacher’s Hub):  This page offers lesson plans and activities based on the book Time Travelling With a Hamster by Ross Welford. The website provides Teachers’ Notes, film resources, discussion and writing activities for literacy, and drama exercises. It also includes an essay on empathy and suggests ideas for further study  Link .

Time Travelling With a Hamster (Scholastic):  This page provides teachers with a complete guide to the book, which includes an introduction to the characters, a discussion about themes of loyalty, trust and understanding, and study questions and answers for each chapter.  Link

Time Travelling with a Hamster (TES):  TES offers a booklet that guides teaching students aged 10 to 13 about the key themes of Time Traveling With A Hamster, such as life lessons, family loyalty and time travel paradoxes. The booklet also includes worksheets with thought-provoking questions and activities related to these themes.  Link

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About The Author

I'm Dan Higgins, one of the faces behind The Teaching Couple. With 15 years in the education sector and a decade as a teacher, I've witnessed the highs and lows of school life. Over the years, my passion for supporting fellow teachers and making school more bearable has grown. The Teaching Couple is my platform to share strategies, tips, and insights from my journey. Together, we can shape a better school experience for all.

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Ross Welford

• The Monkey Who Fell From The Future
• Into the Sideways World
• Time Travelling With A Hamster
• What Not To Do If You Turn Invisible
• The 1,000-year-old Boy
• The Dog Who Saved The World
• The Kid Who Came From Space
• When We Got Lost in Dreamland
• Schools & Festivals

My dad died twice.

Once when he was thirty nine and again four years later when he was twelve..

On Al Chaudhury’s twelfth birthday his beloved Grandpa Byron gives him a letter from Al’s late father. In it Al receives a mission: travel back to 1984 in a secret time machine and save his father’s life.

Al soon discovers that time travel requires daring and imagination. It also requires lies, theft, setting his school on fire and ignoring philosophical advice from Grandpa Byron.

All without losing his pet hamster, Alan Shearer…

Time Travelling With a Hamster is a funny, heart-warming race-against-time and across generations adventure that you will won’t be able to put down.

There’s a bit of the Geordie dialect in all of my books. I thought it would be helpful for some readers  – especially non-Brits – to get an idea of how this actually sounds.

(Don’t worry: it’s not written in dialect.  It’s perfectly comprehensible as it is, with only a few hints at the accent in the text.  But if you do know what the Geordie accent sounds like, you might enjoy the book even more!)

Only one Geordie word was changed for the US edition, and that was “ha’way”.  Ha’way, or “howay” is heard everywhere in the northeast of England, and means simply “come on”.  All the ha’ways in the US book were replaced with “come on”.

It’s a very distinctive accent, and – among Brits at least – famously difficult to imitate.  Poor attempts at Geordie accents usually end up as a cross between a Welsh accent and Anglo-Pakistani: there’s an -up-and-down quality to it that is shared by the others.

Non-Brits often have trouble understanding Geordie.  It’s said that the singer Cheryl Cole was dropped from the US edition of  The X-Factor because audiences had trouble with her accent.

Turns out there are loads of guides to speaking Geordie on YouTube.   Here is one of the better ones.  (Check out her part two as well: it starts with a perfect rendition of the “eee” favoured by Al’s mum in the book!)

(And why “Geordie”?  It’s a regional nickname for people called “George”, in a similar way that Scots can be called “Jocks” or Irish “Paddies”.)

From our point of view, well into the 21 st century, it’s hard to imagine that not so long ago time travel did not exist.

We all know that time travel cannot happen really but it’s strange – to me anyway – to think that it’s a fairly new idea, especially since it is all around us. Doctor Who, Back To The Future, Interstellar, Star Trek, About Time, Bill & Ted, Looper, Life On Mars, Goodnight Sweetheart : these are all TV shows or films centred around time travel (and I didn’t even have to think very hard).

But it is the celebrated Victorian writer Charles Dickens who is often hailed as the first writer to send a character back and forth in time. The book is A Christmas Carol, published in 1843. In it, Ebeneezer Scrooge is haunted by a ghost who whisks him back in time to witness a Christmas in the past, and then forward to show him a Christmas in the future.

In 1888, the American writer Mark Twain wrote A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court in which the hero is knocked out and wakes up in the court of Camelot.

As for a “time machine,” such a thing did not appear in fiction until 1895, in a book by H G Wells. The Time Machine was the first to use a mechanical device to make time travel possible. Wells was the first to use the phrases “time machine” and “time traveller”.

So it was slow to catch on. Even the original 1960s Star Trek, although set in the future, was sparing in its use of time travel. (The BBC’s Dr Who was – and remains – very keen on time travel.) Really, it was not until the 1980s – and specifically with Terminator and Back To The Future – that time travel became firmly established as a fictional crowd-pleaser.

I hope that Time Travelling With A Hamster can takes a small place in the history of fictional time travel. At the very least, it is – so far as I know – the only time travel story to incorporate a small pet rodent.

I love the names of the people on this poster for a play of A Christmas Carol. (right) They are all exactly like names from a Dickens novel. Dame Gwendolyn Flapstock! Madge Wardrobe!

“Al’s journey back in time to save his father will delight young adventurers and young scientists alike.”

The Guardian

“The gripping suspense truly makes time fly… the book’s heart and humour are hard to resist."

Piers Torday, author of The Last Wild

“Extremely clever and totally engaging.”

The Irish Times

“Intelligent, well crafted and impressive."

Nicolette Jones, The Sunday Times

"Touching, silly and exciting by turns, this thrilling little book is an inventive take on time travel for children. Sure to be a hit with fans of R.J. Palacio's Wonder… an unforgettable, madcap story from a bright new talent in children’s fiction."

Waterstones

“A touching tale of family, grief and love.”

The Daily Express

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TIME TRAVELING WITH A HAMSTER by Ross Welford: A Time Travel Project Review

The Time Travel Project is a new regular feature in which Ana reads Time Travel novels, new and old. More on the feature here . Passenger is the first in a duology by Alexandra Bracken and Ana’s first official read for The Time Travel Project.

Title: Time Traveling with a Hamster

Author: Ross Welford

Genre: Speculative Fiction, Kidlit, Time Travel

Publisher: Harper Collins Publication Date: February 4 2016 Paperback: 400 Pages

A truly original debut novel from an extraordinarily talented new voice in children’s books. Laugh, cry and wonder at this race-against-time story of a boy who travels back to 1984 to prevent a go-kart accident, and save his father’s life… “My dad died twice. Once when he was thirty nine and again four years later when he was twelve. The first time had nothing to do with me. The second time definitely did, but I would never even have been there if it hadn’t been for his ‘time machine’…” When Al Chaudhury discovers his late dad’s time machine, he finds that going back to the 1980s requires daring and imagination. It also requires lies, theft, burglary, and setting his school on fire. All without losing his pet hamster, Alan Shearer…

Stand alone or series: Stand alone

How did I get this book: Bought

Format (e- or p-): print

Albert Einstein Hawking Chaudhury’s dad was thirty nine years old when he died for the first time and twelve when he died for the second time. The former happened due to a dislodged piece of metal that caused brain haemorrhage, a leftover from of an accident he had when he was a kid.

The latter is the result of what sets Time Traveling with a Hamster in motion.

Al’s dad died suddenly when Al was eight years old. When Al turns twelve he receives a mind-blowing present: a letter from his dead father that contains mysterious instructions that Al must choose whether he wishes to follow or not. If he does so, his father’s letter tells him, he will learn everything about time travel just in time to go back to when his father was twelve and prevent his accident from happening, therefore changing his present. Al’s father’s life is thus, literally in Al’s hands as, due to the rules of time traveling, a person cannot be in the same timeline twice. So Al is the only person who can travel back in time and save his father.

And we know this doesn’t go well – for when Al fails to save his father, he alters the space-time continuum, changing everything . And then he needs to find a way to set things right.

Time Traveling with a Hamster is a strange creature. The central relationship in the book came as a nice surprise: it’s not Al and his father or Al and his hamster. It’s Al and his granddad Byron’s and their relationship is sweet and informs most of Al’s actions. His granddad is the true father figure in the novel. I also loved that Al is Anglo-Indian and that his grandad shares his experiences as an immigrant.

Looking at the title and the cover copy though, I was expecting a light, entertaining romp with a kid and his pet hamster. Of the pet hamster, Alan Shearer, there is very little, his presence is inconsequential, almost an after-thought. And even though there are moments of light and fun (hey, time traveling shenanigans are always fun), this book turned out to be darker and more thoughtful than I was expecting. This is not a bad thing per se but the problem with this is that the narrative voice doesn’t quite decide if it wants to sound very young or much older.

Think on this: Al is trusted with a mission that decides the fate of his own father. If you think this is a lot of pressure to put on a 12-year-old kid, bingo. But which kid, given the chance to save his own father’s life, would say no? The problem here is that we see very little on-page relationship between Al and his dad. The first part of the book is all dedicated to Al and his grandad, who by the way, doesn’t even sound like he liked his son very much. Actually, his mom doesn’t seem to have liked his father all that much either. So as a reader, it’s hard to be invested in this mission. As an outsider looking in, I detested Al’s father and wished he had remained dead for the things he put his kid through, and for the horribly condescending, self-serving letters he sent. On the other hand, which person would not try to save their own lives if they knew a way?

This is why I call this book a strange creature. Because the focus here seems to be placed so much on the adults, and a lot of the story asks us to sympathise more with them rather than with the actual kid that is the main character. When Al comes back to a different future after things go horribly wrong in the past (and horribly wrong is a mild way of putting it), it’s his granddad that is changed the most. We get a much richer, deeper description of his granddad’s pain than Al’s, whose life has been altered significantly as well – he is not even supposed to be alive (actually, good question: how is he even alive if his father never met his mother. Time traveling paradox!). Given all this, in fact, when reading Time Traveling with a Hamster , I often wondered if the book was even written as a kids’ book in the first place because it straddles a line between kidlit and adult fiction crossing over and back multiple times.

One thing I liked very much is how Al asks himself about the “other Als”. Do you remember how Marty McFly goes back to the future at the end of Back to the Future to find his family completely altered? What happens to the Marty McFly that that version of his family knew? His family has memories of that Marty and his childhood and this new Marty has none of those memories. So it’s a little bittersweet to think about that and Time Traveling with a Hamster is affecting in that same way.

So: A strange creature. I liked it – but probably not as much as I had hoped and not in the way I had expected.

Rating: 6- Good

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Ana Grilo is a Brazilian who moved to the UK because of the weather. No, seriously. She works with translations in RL and hopes one day The Book Smugglers will be her day job. When she’s not here at The Book Smugglers, she is hogging our Twitter feed.

22 Comments

I want the book

i have the book

Sounds great anonymous.

i read the book and i dont really see these points the reviewer makes

i think its an interesting perspective on such a boring book , how did you come up with all of this from just a meer kid going back in time ??

anonymous is a bad boy

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TIME TRAVELING WITH A HAMSTER

by Ross Welford ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 4, 2016

Nods to classic time travel stories will delight some readers; those merely looking for a page-turning adventure will find...

Can you change time past without losing what is most important about the present?

For his 12th birthday, British Indian narrator Albert Einstein Hawking Chaudhury receives a pet hamster and a letter from his father, written days before his father’s sudden death when Al was 8. Welford’s voice for his protagonist is engaging, pragmatic, and solid—a solitary boy who is brave and perceptive. Al’s dearly loved best friend is his grandfather, a prodigious memory expert, who emigrated from the Punjab to this northeast part of England as a young adult. The letter instructs Al to find the time machine his father built. Al is to go back to his father’s childhood to avert an accident that would cause his father’s untimely death as an adult. The time machine (an old Macbook, black electronics box, and zinc tub) is portable but unfortunately still hidden in the fallout shelter at the house where Al and his family lived before his father’s death. Al makes several attempts at his mission, each fraught with dangers and mistakes. Welford addresses all the complications of time travel, including the impossibility of being in two places at the same time and the threat of obliterating one’s present self.

Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-399-55149-9

Page Count: 432

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random

Review Posted Online: July 1, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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More by Ross Welford

BOOK REVIEW

by Ross Welford

THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL

From the school for good and evil series , vol. 1.

by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 14, 2013

Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.

Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.

Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and  her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).

Pub Date: May 14, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2

Page Count: 496

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

More In The Series

by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno

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by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by RaidesArt

by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by Julia Iredale

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BOOK TO SCREEN

HOW TO SPEAK DOLPHIN

by Ginny Rorby ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 26, 2015

Dolphin lovers will appreciate this look at our complicated relationship with these marine mammals.

Is dolphin-assisted therapy so beneficial to patients that it’s worth keeping a wild dolphin captive?

Twelve-year-old Lily has lived with her emotionally distant oncologist stepfather and a succession of nannies since her mother died in a car accident two years ago. Nannies leave because of the difficulty of caring for Adam, Lily’s severely autistic 4-year-old half brother. The newest, Suzanne, seems promising, but Lily is tired of feeling like a planet orbiting the sun Adam. When she meets blind Zoe, who will attend the same private middle school as Lily in the fall, Lily’s happy to have a friend. However, Zoe’s take on the plight of the captive dolphin, Nori, used in Adam’s therapy opens Lily’s eyes. She knows she must use her influence over her stepfather, who is consulting on Nori’s treatment for cancer (caused by an oil spill), to free the animal. Lily’s got several fine lines to walk, as she works to hold onto her new friend, convince her stepfather of the rightness of releasing Nori, and do what’s best for Adam. In her newest exploration of animal-human relationships, Rorby’s lonely, mature heroine faces tough but realistic situations. Siblings of children on the spectrum will identify with Lily. If the tale flirts with sentimentality and some of the characters are strident in their views, the whole never feels maudlin or didactic.

Pub Date: May 26, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-545-67605-2

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Scholastic

Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

More by Ginny Rorby

by Ginny Rorby

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Time Travelling with a Hamster Paperback – 28 Jan. 2016

Purchase options and add-ons.

For readers who loved Wonder and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time this extraordinary debut will make you laugh and cry.

A story that crosses time and generations, for adventure-loving readers young and old.

“My dad died twice. Once when he was thirty nine and again four years later when he was twelve.”

On Al Chaudhury’s twelfth birthday his beloved Grandpa Byron gives him a letter from Al’s late father. In it Al receives a mission: travel back to 1984 in a secret time machine and save his father’s life.

Al soon discovers that time travel requires daring and imagination. It also requires lies, theft, setting his school on fire and ignoring philosophical advice from Grandpa Byron. All without losing his pet hamster, Alan Shearer…

Time Travelling With a Hamster is a funny, heart-warming race-against-time – and across generations – adventure that you will won’t be able to put down.

• Reading age 9 - 12 years
• Book 1 of 2 Al Chaudhury
• Print length 400 pages
• Language English
• Dimensions 12.9 x 2.54 x 19.81 cm
• Publisher HarperCollinsChildren'sBooks
• Publication date 28 Jan. 2016
• ISBN-10 000815631X
• ISBN-13 978-0008156312
• See all details

Frequently bought together

Popular titles by this author

From the Publisher

Into the Sideways World

The whole world was heading for war when Manny Weaver and I went through a ‘grey hole’ to another world.

Till then, I didn’t believe in magic. Fairies, witches, magic spells, strange lands with talking animals, monsters with three heads and potions to turn you into a giant?

Even when I was very little, I knew all that stuff wasn’t real. Then I encountered Manny, and the strange animal we called a ‘cog’, and the brother who I’d never met because he died before I was born. I rode through a lightning storm on a flying jet ski, and lived in a World Without War.

And so now, if you ask me if I believe in magic? Let’s just say I’m not so sure.

Praise for Time Travelling with a Hamster

'The gripping suspense truly makes time fly… the book’s heart and humour are hard to resist.' Piers Torday, author of The Last Wild

'Extremely clever and totally engaging.' The Irish Times

'Intelligent, well crafted and impressive.' The Sunday Times

'Touching, silly and exciting by turns, this thrilling little book is an inventive take on time travel for children. Sure to be a hit with fans of R.J. Palacio's Wonder … an unforgettable, madcap story from a bright new talent in Children’s fiction.’ Waterstones

'A touching tale of family, grief and love.' Daily Express

'With intriguing twists from start to finish, this story is a real roller coaster of emotions. It warmed my heart and filled my head with wonder! A fast, funny and really satisfying read that sparks your imagination.' Joseph, 10

Product description

‘The gripping suspense truly makes time fly… the book’s heart and humour are hard to resist.’ Piers Torday, author of The Last Wild

“Extremely clever and totally engaging.” The Irish Times

“Intelligent, well crafted and impressive.” Nicolette Jones, The Sunday Times

‘Touching, silly and exciting by turns, this thrilling little book is an inventive take on time travel for children. Sure to be a hit with fans of R.J. Palacio's Wonder… an unforgettable, madcap story from a bright new talent in Children’s fiction.’ Waterstones

“A touching tale of family, grief and love.” Daily Express

‘With intriguing twists from start to finish, this story is a real roller coaster of emotions. It warmed my heart and filled my head with wonder! A fast, funny and really satisfying read that sparks your imagination.’ Joseph, 10

From the Author

From the inside flap, from the back cover, about the author.

Ross Welford was a journalist and television producer before becoming a full-time writer. He lives in London with his wife, children, a border collie and several tropical fish.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollinsChildren'sBooks (28 Jan. 2016)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 000815631X
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0008156312
• Reading age ‏ : ‎ 9 - 12 years
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.9 x 2.54 x 19.81 cm
• 6 in Time Travel Fiction for Children
• 10 in Fiction About Death & Dying for Children
• 37 in Children's Books on Difficult Discussions

About the author

Ross welford.

Ross Welford was a magazine journalist and television producer in the UK before becoming an author.

Time Travelling With A Hamster was his first book, and was nominated for every major award in children's books, winning the Awesome Book Award in 2017. It was followed by a second book, What Not To Do If You Turn Invisible.

A new, standalone book has followed every year since, all achieving critical and popular acclaim, and frequently gaining best-seller status. Ross is firmly established as one of the UK's most popular and original voices in children's books.

His eighth book, The Monkey Who Fell From The Future, is published in 2023.

Customer reviews

• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 5 star 75% 18% 5% 1% 1% 75%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 4 star 75% 18% 5% 1% 1% 18%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 3 star 75% 18% 5% 1% 1% 5%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 2 star 75% 18% 5% 1% 1% 1%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 1 star 75% 18% 5% 1% 1% 1%

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings, help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyses reviews to verify trustworthiness.

Customers say

Customers find the storyline amazing and wonderful, exploring the idea of time travel. They also describe the book as well-written and entertaining, with a great buildup. Readers also find the content fascinating, serious, and funny at the same time.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers find the storyline amazing, suspenseful, and well-written. They also appreciate the time travel and rules discussion. Customers also say the book draws them in and is touching.

"...; underpinning a funny, original, adventurous, moving, contemporary-yet-old-fashioned story , full of twists and turns, satisfying pay-offs and a..." Read more

"...Worth a read for all ages. A great story that I share with my son" Read more

"...honestly read it and you won't be disappointed - funny, inventive and touching , I'm looking forward to more from Ross Welford." Read more

"...the characters were well thought out and appealing.I loved the storyline , and it worked really well, and was incredibly well thought out...." Read more

Customers find the book well-written, easy to read, and digestible. They also say it includes literary references in a very digestible way that appeals to youngsters and adults alike.

"...Like John Green's 'A Fault in Our Stars', it includes literary references in a very digestible way , particularly a genius presentation of TS Eliot..." Read more

"...This is a very easy read with a hugely likable narrator (young Albert who, at 12, receives a letter from his dad (who died when Albert was 8)..." Read more

"...The ending is great and it’s an altogether well plotted and well written book , It’s one that I shall keep for my kids to read when they are a few..." Read more

"...I think this is a rare and brilliant book which will appeal to youngsters and adults alike ." Read more

Customers find the plot very entertaining, with adventures full of adrenaline. They also say the time travel device is fun and doesn't get bogged down in specifics. Customers also appreciate the great build up and how it ends.

"...book is filled with nail-biting action, cliffhangers and adventures full of adrenaline ...." Read more

"...This was great fun to read - and, at points, Welford's easy prose and spot-on tone of voice put me in mind of Patrick Ness...." Read more

"Brilliant and actually made me well up at the end. Worth a read for all ages . A great story that I share with my son" Read more

"...a story that everyone who enjoys a good story, with great characters, real fun and true empathy should read...." Read more

Customers find the book's content fascinating, clever, and full of twists and turns. They also say the difficult subject is handled well. Readers also say it's an enjoyable read with well-explained science.

"...adventurous, moving, contemporary-yet-old-fashioned story, full of twists and turns , satisfying pay-offs and a wonderful end...." Read more

"...it, but honestly read it and you won't be disappointed - funny, inventive and touching, I'm looking forward to more from Ross Welford." Read more

"...The science is interesting and integral and yet not enough to put off anyone who is not a science buff...." Read more

"One of those books I really loved reading to my 8-year old. Full of clever ideas , which can lead to some great discussions - so I'd say even though..." Read more

Customers find the book funny, sad, and wacky. They also say it's very clever and mind-blowing.

"...quantum physics "spacetime dimensional thingy" underpinning a funny , original, adventurous, moving, contemporary-yet-old-fashioned story,..." Read more

"...case I spoil it, but honestly read it and you won't be disappointed - funny , inventive and touching, I'm looking forward to more from Ross Welford." Read more

"...the book was also very funny , and a great look at a kids relationship with his father and grandfather...." Read more

"...He thoroughly enjoyed it, he found it funny and engaging...." Read more

Customers find the characters in the book lovely.

"...spoiling a story that everyone who enjoys a good story, with great characters , real fun and true empathy should read...." Read more

"I really enjoyed this book as an adult. the characters were well thought out and appealing...." Read more

"Loved it from start to finish. The characters are really endearing and the relationships are well portrayed- emotional and yet not slushy...." Read more

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Time Travelling with a Hamster

By ross welford, this title was previously available on netgalley and is now archived., send netgalley books directly to your kindle or kindle app, to read on a kindle or kindle app, please add [email protected] as an approved email address to receive files in your amazon account. click here for step-by-step instructions., also find your kindle email address within your amazon account, and enter it here., pub date dec 31 2015 | archive date may 03 2017, harpercollins uk, children's | harpercollinschildren’sbooks, children's fiction | middle grade, description.

For readers who loved Wonder and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time this extraordinary debut will make you laugh and cry.

A story that crosses time and generations, for adventure-loving readers young and old.

“My dad died twice. Once when he was thirty nine and again four years later when he was twelve.”

On Al Chaudhury’s twelfth birthday his beloved Grandpa Byron gives him a letter from Al’s late father. In it Al receives a mission: travel back to 1984 in a secret time machine and save his father’s life.

Al soon discovers that time travel requires daring and imagination. It also requires lies, theft, setting his school on fire and ignoring philosophical advice from Grandpa Byron. All without losing his pet hamster, Alan Shearer…

Time Travelling With a Hamster is a funny, heart-warming race-against-time – and across generations – adventure that you will won’t be able to put down.

A story that crosses time and generations, for...

Advance Praise

'Time Travelling with a Hamster is an unforgettable, madcap story from a bright new talent in Children’s fiction.' - Waterstones 'An amazing story which is funny, gripping and has a cute hamster in it...

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Average rating from 96 members, see all member reviews, readers who liked this book also liked:.

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Time Travelling with a Hamster

Ross welford.

Shortlisted for no fewer than 13 of the country’s biggest children’s book prizes, including the Costa, the Blue Peter, and the Branford Boase. 

‘The gripping suspense truly makes time fly… the book’s heart and humour are hard to resist.’ Piers Torday, author of  The Last Wild

‘Extremely clever and totally engaging.’  The Irish Times

‘Intelligent, well crafted and impressive.’ Nicolette Jones,  The Sunday Times

‘Touching, silly and exciting by turns, this thrilling little book is an inventive take on time travel for children. Sure to be a hit with fans of R.J. Palacio’s Wonder… an unforgettable, madcap story from a bright new talent in Children’s fiction.’  Waterstones

‘A touching tale of family, grief and love.’  Daily Express

‘With intriguing twists from start to finish, this story is a real roller coaster of emotions. It warmed my heart and filled my head with wonder! A fast, funny and really satisfying read that sparks your imagination.’ Joseph, 10

My dad died twice. Once when he was thirty nine and again four years later when he was twelve.

On Al Chaudhury’s twelfth birthday his beloved Grandpa Byron gives him a letter from Al’s late father. In it Al receives a mission: travel back to 1984 in a secret time machine and save his father’s life.

Al soon discovers that time travel requires daring and imagination. It also requires lies, theft, setting his school on fire and ignoring philosophical advice from Grandpa Byron. All without losing his pet hamster, Alan Shearer…

Time Travelling With a Hamster  is a funny, heart-warming race-against-time – and across generations – adventure that you will won’t be able to put down.

More on this author

Time Travelling with a Hamster

By Ross Welford (author)

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LoveReading Says

Press reviews.

Shortlisted for the Costa Children's Book Award 2016 | One of our Books of the Year 2016 | Longlisted for the UKLA 2017 Book Award and  Shortlisted for The Branford Boase Award 2016. January 2016 Debut of the Month  This clever, touching time travel adventure owes as much to The Railway Children as it does to Back to the Future ! Al (for Albert, after Einstein) Chaudhury’s dad is dead but – and here’s where it gets really interesting – a physicist, he’d already been experimenting with time travel and, realising what is going to happen, left instructions enabling his son to go back in time and prevent the childhood accident that will ultimately kill him. Huge congratulations to Ross Welford for observing all the rules of time travel (never easy and he manages a sly dig at Dr Who !) and constructing a terrific adventure that puts family relationships, particularly male ones, at its heart.    ~ Andrea Reece

Costa judges' comment: “A highly accomplished debut, genuinely enjoyable for both a child reading independently and an adult reading with a child.”

***Download a special discussion pack to help you get more out of this book.

Andrea Reece

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Time travelling with a hamster synopsis.

For readers who loved Wonder and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time this extraordinary debut will make you laugh and cry. A story that crosses time and generations, for adventure-loving readers young and old. My dad died twice. Once when he was thirty nine and again four years later when he was twelve. On Al Chaudhury's twelfth birthday his beloved Grandpa Byron gives him a letter from Al's late father. In it Al receives a mission: travel back to 1984 in a secret time machine and save his father's life. Al soon discovers that time travel requires daring and imagination. It also requires lies, theft, setting his school on fire and ignoring philosophical advice from Grandpa Byron. All without losing his pet hamster, Alan Shearer...Time Travelling With a Hamster is a funny, heart-warming race-against-time - and across generations - adventure that you will won't be able to put down.

About This Edition

Ross welford press reviews.

'The gripping suspense truly makes time fly... the book's heart and humour are hard to resist.' Piers Torday, author of The Last Wild

'Extremely clever and totally engaging. The Irish Times Intelligent, well crafted and impressive.' Nicolette Jones, The Sunday Times 'A touching tale of family, grief and love.' Daily Express

About Ross Welford

Ross Welford was a journalist and television producer before becoming a full-time writer. He lives in London with his wife, children, a border collie and several tropical fish. This is his first novel.

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Time Travelling with a Hamster Paperback – 30 March 2016

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• Reading age 9 years and up
• Book 1 of 2 Al Chaudhury
• Print length 400 pages
• Language English
• Dimensions 12.9 x 2.54 x 19.81 cm
• Publisher Harper Collins Children's Books
• Publication date 30 March 2016
• ISBN-10 000815631X
• ISBN-13 978-0008156312
• See all details

Frequently bought together

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From the Publisher

Into the Sideways World

The whole world was heading for war when Manny Weaver and I went through a ‘grey hole’ to another world.

Till then, I didn’t believe in magic. Fairies, witches, magic spells, strange lands with talking animals, monsters with three heads and potions to turn you into a giant?

Even when I was very little, I knew all that stuff wasn’t real. Then I encountered Manny, and the strange animal we called a ‘cog’, and the brother who I’d never met because he died before I was born. I rode through a lightning storm on a flying jet ski, and lived in a World Without War.

And so now, if you ask me if I believe in magic? Let’s just say I’m not so sure.

Praise for Time Travelling with a Hamster

'The gripping suspense truly makes time fly… the book’s heart and humour are hard to resist.' Piers Torday, author of The Last Wild

'Extremely clever and totally engaging.' The Irish Times

'Intelligent, well crafted and impressive.' The Sunday Times

'Touching, silly and exciting by turns, this thrilling little book is an inventive take on time travel for children. Sure to be a hit with fans of R.J. Palacio's Wonder … an unforgettable, madcap story from a bright new talent in Children’s fiction.’ Waterstones

'A touching tale of family, grief and love.' Daily Express

'With intriguing twists from start to finish, this story is a real roller coaster of emotions. It warmed my heart and filled my head with wonder! A fast, funny and really satisfying read that sparks your imagination.' Joseph, 10

Product description

‘The gripping suspense truly makes time fly… the book’s heart and humour are hard to resist.’ Piers Torday, author of The Last Wild

“Extremely clever and totally engaging.” The Irish Times

“Intelligent, well crafted and impressive.” Nicolette Jones, The Sunday Times

‘Touching, silly and exciting by turns, this thrilling little book is an inventive take on time travel for children. Sure to be a hit with fans of R.J. Palacio's Wonder… an unforgettable, madcap story from a bright new talent in Children’s fiction.’ Waterstones

“A touching tale of family, grief and love.” Daily Express

‘With intriguing twists from start to finish, this story is a real roller coaster of emotions. It warmed my heart and filled my head with wonder! A fast, funny and really satisfying read that sparks your imagination.’ Joseph, 10

About the Author

Ross Welford was a journalist and television producer before becoming a full-time writer. He lives in London with his wife, children, a border collie and several tropical fish.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Collins Children's Books; 1st edition (30 March 2016)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 000815631X
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0008156312
• Reading age ‏ : ‎ 9 years and up
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 284 g
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.9 x 2.54 x 19.81 cm
• Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ USA
• Net Quantity ‏ : ‎ 1.00 count
• Generic Name ‏ : ‎ BOOK
• #8 in Science Fiction Adventures for Children
• #8 in Fiction about Death & Dying for Children
• #14 in Children's Books on Difficult Discussions

About the author

Ross welford.

Ross Welford was a magazine journalist and television producer in the UK before becoming an author.

Time Travelling With A Hamster was his first book, and was nominated for every major award in children's books, winning the Awesome Book Award in 2017. It was followed by a second book, What Not To Do If You Turn Invisible.

A new, standalone book has followed every year since, all achieving critical and popular acclaim, and frequently gaining best-seller status. Ross is firmly established as one of the UK's most popular and original voices in children's books.

His eighth book, The Monkey Who Fell From The Future, is published in 2023.

Customer reviews

• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 5 star 73% 19% 5% 1% 2% 73%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 4 star 73% 19% 5% 1% 2% 19%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 3 star 73% 19% 5% 1% 2% 5%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 2 star 73% 19% 5% 1% 2% 1%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 1 star 73% 19% 5% 1% 2% 2%

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Time Travelling with a Hamster

By: Ross Welford

A story that crosses time and generations, for adventure-loving readers young and old.

My dad died twice. Once when he was thirty nine and again four years later when he was twelve.

On Al Chaudhury’s twelfth birthday his beloved Grandpa Byron gives him a letter from Al’s late father. In it Al receives a mission: travel back to 1984 in a secret time machine and save his father’s life. Al soon discovers that time travel requires daring and imagination. It also requires lies, theft, setting his school on fire and ignoring philosophical advice from Grandpa Byron. All without losing his pet hamster, Alan Shearer…

Time Travelling With a Hamster is a funny, heart-warming race-against-time – and across generations – adventure that you will won’t be able to put down.

Content Age : 9

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Time Traveling with a Hamster Kindle Edition

• Book 1 of 2 Al Chaudhury
• Print length 428 pages
• Language English
• Grade level 3 - 7
• Lexile measure 900L
• Publisher Schwartz & Wade
• Publication date October 4, 2016
• Page Flip Enabled
• Word Wise Enabled
• Enhanced typesetting Enabled
• Sticky notes On Kindle Scribe
• ISBN-13 978-0399551499
• See all details

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About the author, excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved..

Chapter One

Just across the road from the house where we used to live before Dad died (the first time) is an alleyway that leads to the next street with a patch of grass with some bushes and straggly trees growing on it. I called it “the jungle” when I was little because in my mind that’s what it was like, but looking at it now, I can see that it’s just a plot of land for a house that hasn’t been built yet.

And that’s where I am, still in my full-face motorbike helmet, sitting hidden in a bush in the dead of night, waiting to break into my old house.

There’s an old fried-chicken box that someone’s thrown there, and I can smell something foul and sour that I think might be fox’s poo. The house is dark; there are no lights on. I’m looking up at my old bedroom window, the small one over the front door.

By day, Chesterton Road is pretty quiet--a long curve of small, semidetached houses made of reddish bricks. When they were first built, they must all have looked exactly the same, but now people have added fancy gates, garage extensions, even a massive monkey puzzle tree outside old Mr. Frasier’s, so these days they’re all a bit different.

Now, at nearly one a.m., there’s no one about, and I’ve seen enough films and TV shows about criminals to know exactly how not to behave, and that’s suspiciously. If you act normal, no one notices you. If I wandered nervously up and down the street waiting for the right time, then someone might spot me going backward and forward looking at the houses, and call the police.

On the other hand, if I’m just walking down the street, then that’s all I’m doing, and it’s as good as being invisible.

(Keeping the motorbike helmet on is a gamble, or what Grandpa Byron calls “a calculated risk.” If I take it off, someone might notice that I’m nowhere near old enough to be riding a moped; if I keep it on, that looks suspicious--so I’m still of two minds about it. Anyway, it won’t be on for long.)

I’ve worked all this out on the journey here. About a year ago, when we still lived here, the local council turned off every second streetlight in a money-saving experiment, so where I’ve stopped the moped it is really pretty dark.

As casually as I can, I come out of the bushes, take off the helmet, and put it in the moped’s top box. I pull my collar up and, without stopping, walk over the road to number 40. There I turn straight up the short driveway and stop in the shadows, well hidden by both the hedge that divides number 40’s front garden from the one next door and the small Škoda that sits in the driveway.

So far, so good--the new owners of our house have not yet got round to fixing the garage doors. In fact, they’re even less secure than they were. There’s a brick in front of them to keep them shut, and when I crouch down and move it out of the way, the right-hand door swings open, then bumps against the Škoda. For a dreadful moment I think the gap will be too small to let me in, but I just manage to squeeze through--and there I am, in the garage, which smells of dust and old oil. My torch is flashing round the walls to reveal boxes that still haven’t been unpacked and, in the middle of the floor, the dark wooden planks covering up the cellar entrance.

Here’s another tip if you’re thinking of breaking in anywhere: don’t flash your torch around too much. A flashing light will attract attention, but a still light won’t. So I put my torch on the ground and start to lift up the greasy planks.

Under the planks there’s a concrete stairway, and once I’ve gone down it I’m standing in a space about a meter square and to my right is a small metal door that’s about half my height with a dusty steel wheel for opening it like you get on ships. The wheel is secured in place by a stout bolt with a combination lock.

I try to give a little whistle of amazement--a “whew!”--but my lips are so dry with nerves and dust that I can’t. Instead, I set the combination lock to the numbers Dad instructed in his letter--the day and month of my birth backward--grab the wheel with both hands, and twist it counterclockwise. There’s a bit of resistance, but it gives with a soft grating noise, and as it spins around, the door suddenly pops open inward with a tiny sighing noise of escaping air.

I grab my torch and aim it ahead of me as I go through the little doorway, crouching. There are more steps down and a wall on my right, and my hand finds a light switch but I daren’t try it in case it’s a switch for something else, like an alarm or something, or it lights up the garage upstairs, or . . . I just don’t know, but I’m too nervous to flick the switch so I look at everything through the yellowy-white beam of torchlight.

The steps lead to a room about half the size of our living room at home, but with a lower ceiling. A grown-up could just about stand up.

Along one long wall are four bunk beds, all made up--blankets, pillows, everything. There’s a wall that juts out into the room, and behind it is a toilet and some kind of machinery with pipes and hoses coming out of it. There are rugs on the white concrete floor and a poster on the wall. It’s faded orange and black with a picture of a mum, a dad, and two children inside a circle, and the words “protect and survive” in big white letters. I’ve seen this poster before when some guy came to talk about peace and nuclear war and stuff in assembly once, and he made Dania Biziewski cry because she was scared and he was really embarrassed.

This is what people built years ago when they thought Russia was going to kill us with nuclear bombs.

I turn round and see what’s behind me. The torch beam picks out a long desk with a chair in front of it. On the desk is a zinc tub, like you would bathe a dog in or something. In it is an old-style Mac laptop--the white one--and a computer mouse. There’s a cord coming out of the back of the computer leading to a black metal box about the size of a paperback book, and coming out of that are two cords that are each about a meter long, with strange sort of handgrips on the end.

Next to the tub is a coffee mug printed with a picture of me as a baby and the words “I love my daddy.” The inside of the mug is all furred up with ancient mold.

And beside the mug is a copy of the local newspaper, the Whitley Bay Advertiser, folded in half and open at a story headlined “Local Man’s Tragic Sudden Death” above a picture of my dad.

I sit down in the swivel chair and run my hands over the underside of the desk. When I can’t feel anything, I get on my knees and shine the torch upward, and there it is: an envelope, taped at the back, just as Dad said there would be.

But there’s no time machine. At least, not one that looks how I imagine a time machine might look.

That’s how I end up staring at the zinc tub and its contents.

Surely, I’m thinking, surely that’s not it?

And the craziest thing? It works.

One Week Earlier

Chapter Two

This whole thing--the breaking and entering, plus robbery, arson, stealing a moped, and killing someone (sort of, anyway), not to mention time travel--started on my twelfth birthday.

That day I got a hamster, and a letter from my dead dad.

I suppose if you were being precise--and precision, as Grandpa Byron says, counts--it started when me and Mum moved in with Steve and the Stepsister From Hell, Carly. That was just after Mum and Steve got married in the world’s smallest wedding (people there: Mum, Steve, Grandpa Byron, me, TSFH, Aunty Ellie).

If you were being super-precise, it kind of started when Dad died, but that was a long time ago and I don’t really want to get into that. Not yet, anyway.

So there we were, on my twelfth birthday, which is May 12, so I was twelve on the twelfth, which only happens once in anyone’s life, and some people have to wait until they’re thirty-one, by which time I guess it’s not so much fun.

Steve is always trying to make me like him, so he spent a lot of money on my present, a replica Newcastle United shirt with my name and age on the back: “Albert 12.” Except my name’s now Al, not Albert, and I don’t really like football. I’ve sat and watched a few games with him, because it makes Mum happy to see us “bonding,” but to be honest I don’t really see the point of the whole thing.

“Well, put it on, Al--see if it fits!” says Mum, and she’s smiling this too-smiley smile, and I’m smiling too to make up for the fact that I don’t like the present, even though I know it’s kind of him, and Steve’s smiling a sort of puzzled smile, and about the only one smiling properly is Carly, probably because she can tell I don’t like the present and that makes her happy.

It’s on the big side, so there’s no chance I’ll grow out of it soon, which is a shame.

Mum’s present is much better. It’s there on the countertop: a big box, wrapped up in colored paper, with a ribbon and a bow, just like presents look in drawings, and I have no idea what it is until I unwrap it and the box inside says “hamsterdam--the city for your hamster.” There’s a picture on it of tubes and boxes and a cage and everything, and I’m grinning so hard because I have guessed what’s in the small box that Mum’s holding, and sure enough there’s a hamster in there, a cute, small one that’s not fully grown yet, and he (or she; I don’t know how to tell yet) has got this twitchy nose and light-brown fur and I love him (or her) already.

I’m wondering what to call him when Steve says, “I’ve got a great name for him!”

“Steve,” says Mum, “let the boy choose his own name.”

Steve looks a bit disappointed, so I say, “It’s OK. What’s your idea?”

“Alan Shearer!” Steve sees me blinking, blank-faced, so he repeats, “Alan Shearer. Greatest striker the Toon ever had? Premier League’s all-time top scorer?” I still look blank. “Bloke on Match of the Day?”

I nod and force a smile, but as I’m doing so, it kind of turns into a real one, because whichever way you look at it, giving a hamster a proper name like “Alan Shearer” has got to be better than calling it “Fluffy” or “Hammy,” which was as far as my imagination had got. So Alan Shearer it is.

I notice that Carly has stopped smiling. She comes over to me as I’m unpacking the plastic tubes and bends down close so that only I can hear. “A hamster?” she murmurs. “They’re just rats for babies.”

You know what, though? I don’t care.

Then Grandpa Byron arrives to give me a ride to school like he always does since Mum and I moved farther away to live with Steve and Carly.

I open the front door and he’s standing there in his long saffron-colored robes, gray hair in a plait, little round sunglasses, and huge biker boots. Under one arm--the bad one--he’s holding his motorbike helmet, and under the other--the good one--is a birthday card in an envelope.

“Happy birthday, bonny lad,” he says, and I give him a huge hug. I love Grandpa Byron’s smell. It’s a mixture of the minty oil he puts in his hair and these sweet-smelling cigarettes he sometimes smokes called beedis, which he buys in boxes from a man who runs a Lebanese takeaway, even though he’s from Bangladesh, and the licorice-flavored toothpaste he uses, which I have tried and is pretty gross, but it smells nice.

As I hug him I take a deep breath. He waves through to the kitchen, which isn’t far from the front door. “Morning, Byron!” calls Mum. “Come on in!”

Carly shimmies past me to go up the stairs. “Hi, Byron,” she says sweetly. “Lovin’ the robes, dude!” It’s only when she has passed him and is out of his sight that she turns to me, wrinkles up her face, and wafts her hand in front of her nose, as if Grandpa Byron’s smell is something bad, which it totally isn’t.

He’s got a funny way of talking, my grandpa: his Indian accent sounds Geordie and he uses Geordie expressions and old dialect words all mixed up together. He’s my dad’s dad, but my dad didn’t really talk Geordie, not much.

Grandpa comes in and sits at the breakfast bar. “Sorry, mate--I wasn’t having a chance to get your present.” He wobbles his head in that Indian way, probably just because he knows it makes me laugh, and he’s smiling as he does it so I can see his big gold tooth.

“S’OK,” I reassure him, and I open the card. Out fall two twenty-pound notes.

“Thanks. Thanks a lot!” And I really mean it.

Then Mum says, “I’m glad you’re here, Byron. It’s time to give Al the letter,” and she gets up and goes over to a drawer. She’s behaving a bit strangely, like flighty and excited and nervous, when she skips back with this big fat envelope. Steve’s watching her, smiling quietly, but it’s clear from Grandpa Byron’s face that he hasn’t got a clue what this is about. Mum puts on her serious face.

“Now, Al. This is for you, from your dad.”

I don’t know what to say.

“We found this in your dad’s things after he died. He must have written it ages ago.”

I’m staring at the envelope in her hands. Grandpa Byron’s expression hasn’t changed.

“What is it?” I say eventually.

“I don’t know. It’s personal, addressed to you. But I think you should regard it as highly private”--and here she pauses--“not to be shared with anyone else.”

I take the envelope carefully and read the spidery writing on the front. My dad’s handwriting, and my full name: Albert Einstein Hawking Chaudhury. Below my name is written “IMPORTANT: Do Not Open This Envelope Until Sixteen Hours After Receiving It. To Be Delivered on His Twelfth Birthday.”

Product details

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01AERZRHO
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Schwartz & Wade (October 4, 2016)
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 4, 2016
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 4491 KB
• Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
• Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
• Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 428 pages
• Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0399551506
• #240 in Children's Mice & Small Animal Stories
• #279 in General England Travel Guides
• #326 in Children's Time Travel Books

About the author

Ross welford.

Ross Welford was a magazine journalist and television producer in the UK before becoming an author.

Time Travelling With A Hamster was his first book, and was nominated for every major award in children's books, winning the Awesome Book Award in 2017. It was followed by a second book, What Not To Do If You Turn Invisible.

A new, standalone book has followed every year since, all achieving critical and popular acclaim, and frequently gaining best-seller status. Ross is firmly established as one of the UK's most popular and original voices in children's books.

His eighth book, The Monkey Who Fell From The Future, is published in 2023.

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