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The Misadventures of Sweetie Pie

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The Misadventures of Sweetie Pie

Hardcover

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Hardcover
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Overview

From two-time Caldecott winner Chris Van Allsburg, creator of Jumanji and The Polar Express, comes a poignant story of one hamster’s struggle with destiny.

Being a pet store hamster isn’t much fun for Sweetie Pie, but life in human homes proves downright perilous. As Sweetie Pie longingly gazes out of his cage at the squirrels frolicking in the trees, he wonders if he’ll ever have the chance to feel the wind in his fur.

Allsburg’s expressive, soft-hued illustrations artfully capture a hamster’s-eye view of the wide and wonderful world where maybe, just maybe, Sweetie Pie could someday run free.

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780547315829
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	11/04/2014
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	1,168,628
Product dimensions:	9.80(w) x 11.20(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Chris Van Allsburg is one of America’s most innovative picture book creators. He was awarded the Caldecott Medal for Jumanji and The Polar Express and received a Caldecott Honor for his very first book, The Garden of Abdul Gasazi. He has received the Regina Medal for lifetime achievement in children’s literature, a National Book Award, and a Society of Illustrators Lifetime Achievement Award, among other honors. He lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts. Visit him at chrisvanallsburg.com.

Hometown:

Providence, Rhode Island

Date of Birth:

June 18, 1949

Place of Birth:

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Education:

University of Michigan College of Architecture & Design, 1972; Rhode Island School of Design, MFA, 1975

Website:

http://www.chrisvanallsburg.com

From the B&N Reads Blog

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Editorial Reviews

09/22/2014
Thinking of getting a hamster? Read this first. Caldecott Medalist Van Allsburg chronicles the bleak existence of Sweetie Pie, neglected by one child after another. The hamster’s first owner prefers screen time and sells Sweetie Pie to a boy with a hostile dog—readers receive a close-up, rodent’s-eye view of the dog’s slavering jaws. Next comes Cousin Sue, a girl with malicious eyes, who forces her pet into a clear plastic ball and rolls him down a hill (“Exhausted, Sweetie Pie waited for the girl to rescue him, but she never came”). Eventually, the hamster does time as a school pet. At the holidays, a boy promises “to take care of him,” only to forget him on a playground as snow begins to fall; Sweetie Pie sinks “into a deep and frigid sleep.” Van Allsburg does not play for laughs or pull his punches: when a teacher suggests that a kind child must have saved the icy hamster, “The children knew better.” Sweetie Pie’s grim and all-too-realistic experience raises ethical dilemmas, and a squirrel-ex-machina conclusion offers a happy ending, but little comfort. Ages 4–8. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

2014-08-06
A picture book about the difficult life of a pet hamster. Sweetie Pie is a hamster who, it seems, is doomed to be owned by a series of neglectful children. Originally bought from a pet store, Sweetie Pie is sold down the river, as it were, by a series of child owners who, when the hamster becomes no longer cute or a novelty, hand him off to someone else. Finally he ends up in a school classroom, tended by the children. But even then Sweetie Pie's troubles are not over. One of the children forgets him on the playground, and snow and darkness fall over the hamster trapped in his cage. Van Allsburg's illustrations, done in his trademark precise style, evoke a feeling of detachment that matches the oddly unempathetic text. When, the next morning, the careless child rushes to collect Sweetie Pie, all he finds is an empty, unlatched cage. He is contrite, but no one seems to care much—a guinea pig takes Sweetie Pie's place in the classroom soon enough. The good news is Sweetie Pie was rescued by squirrels and now has a great life with squirrel friends in a tree. The bad news is that Sweetie Pie's "happy ending" comes with no consequences for all the rotten children in his life and is wildly, even harmfully, unrealistic. Save this one for non-animal lovers. (Picture book. 5-8)

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