Ross Welford, Time Travelling with a Hamster

Funnily enough, this is another story where something life-changing happens on the main
character’s 12th birthday. Al Chaudhury’s Dad has been dead for four years when he reappears in Al’s life. He sends him a letter which soon sends Al on a time-travelling journey to try to save his Dad’s life. Of course, you can’t start time-travelling without causing a few problems—especially when there’s a hamster called Alan Shearer involved. Al generally tries to stay out of trouble, but he has to do several things he never imagined he would do very quickly if he is to carry out his Dad’s instructions. Along the way, he has many adventures including escaping the police, dealing with a bully from 1984, working out how to save his Dad (more than once) and making sure that things aren’t changed so much that he won’t be born…

This is a book for older readers (probably Year 6 and above) as it tackles some difficult topics along the way. However, it is an exciting adventure story with some great characters in it (you can’t fail to love wise old Grandpa Byron). This was Ross Welford’s first book and it attracted a lot of attention, making it to many prize shortlists (including the Blue Peter shortlist in 2017, and Costa Children’s Book awards) and winning the Awesome Book award for 2017. If you like action adventure with a bit of an emotional twist and a dose of science-fiction, this could be one to try.