School Days According to Humphrey

According to Humphrey #7

by Betty G. Birney

A new school year and new friends for everyone's favorite classroom pet!

Humphrey is excited to get back to Room 26 and see all his old classmates. But on the first day of school, a bunch of strange kids arrive and no matter how loudly he squeaks up, they don't realize they're in the wrong room! Finally Humphrey realizes that these kids are his new classmates, and he sets off to learn all about them.

He hasn't forgotten about his friends from last year, and of course they miss him a ton. But when they start talking about taking him from Mrs. Brisbane's room, Humphrey gets unsqueakably nervous. How could he say good-bye to Mrs. Brisbane and Og--not to mention his new friends--for good?

Genres: Childrens, Fiction, Animals, Chapter Books, Fantasy, School, Juvenile

176 pages, Paperback

First published June 30, 2011

About the author

From kindergarten through graduation, I attended school in Affton, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. Then I graduated from Webster College (now Webster University) in Webster Groves, Missouri. Of course, I majored in English and kept on writing.

After working in advertising in St. Louis, Missouri and in Chicago, Illinois, I eventually moved to Southern California. First, I worked for Disneyland (fun job!) in the advertising department. The monorail whizzed past my window all day long. Then I worked at the Disney Studio in Burbank, where I had another fun job, writing and producing television and radio commercials and theatrical trailers (previews of coming attractions) for everything from re-releases of "Cinderella" and "Fantasia" to "Tex."

When the Disney Channel was started, I became a writer and story editor for WELCOME TO POOH CORNER. Since then, I've written more than 200 episodes of animated and live-action television programs including MADELINE, DOUG, BOBBY'S WORLD, DUMBO'S CIRCUS, THE PUZZLE PLACE, CAMP CANDY, LITTLE MOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, WHERE'S WALDO, FRAGGLE ROCK and ZOOBILEE ZOO. That's right, I write cartoons! I also wrote a number of award-winning afterschool specials and many interactive CD-ROM programs, including the award-winning "Berenstain Bears on their Own," "Richard Scarry's Busiest Neighborhood Ever," and "The Crayon Factory."

A made-for-television family movie I wrote, MARY CHRISTMAS, starring John Schneider, Cynthia Gibb and Tom Bosley, aired on the PAX network in 2002. It was the highest rated movie in PAX history and has aired each Christmas season since then.

I have been fortunate enough to win a Writer's Guild of America Award and three Humanitas Prizes (as well as two other nominations). In 2002, I won a Daytime Emmy Award for MADELINE, after two previous Emmy nominations. More recently, I received the Christopher Award for FRIENDSHIP ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY, many children's choice awards for THE WORLD ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY and was inducted into the Affton (MO) School District Hall of Fame.

Reviews

[Annie Risher · Rating 5 out of 5]

5-HUNDRED stars!!! To me, it is funny that a hamster is keeping track of his class. I also think Humphrey is smarter than the other students. It makes me happy that Humphrey is helping others.

[Samantha Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is appropriate for Second Grade and Up. Written in the perspective of Humphrey, the classroom hamster. Excited to be in Classroom 26 are. He believes that they are in the wrong room, but finally understands that these kids are his new classmates and so he wants to learn all about them.

Activities:
1) Why do you think Humphrey believes the students are in the wrong classroom?
2) Have you ever had to adjust to a new setting? How were you able to transition?
3) How did Mrs. Brisbane's class go from being the worst class to the best class in the world?
4) Why didn't Mrs. Brisbane's class from last year get a new hamster and frog for their new classroom. Do you agree, why or why not?

Provide a list of possible class pets that your students can choose from. Then have each student write down one of them on a piece of paper. Split the students into groups based off of which animal they chose. Have them create a letter to you to try and convince you as to why their animal is the best choice. The winner is the group who has no spelling mistakes, good word choice, good sentence flow, etc.

Birney, B. (2011). School Days According to Humphrey. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.

[Dolores · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a new school year in room 26 and everyone's favorite classroom pet is back. But this time there are new students with a whole new set of problems and challenges for him to "take care of." Humphrey's off and running setting problems to right in this wonderful addition to one of my favorite series.

[Cheryl]

Very cute and sweet. I think I read the first or second book long time ago, but it doesn't really matter - especially for this one because it's a new year and a new batch of kids. I don't think Humphrey ever did figure out that when kids get a year older they move to another class, though.

Anyway, I can see why Humphrey's adventures are popular, especially with teachers I think. I, personally, didn't quite feel the heart here enough to want to catch up on the series... it felt, I dunno, a bit too workmanlike?

Won't rate, because 3 stars seems too low for people looking for recommendations, and 4 stars too high for my personal enjoyment.

[Aneesa]

Really thought Hurry-Up-Harry was going to turn out to have ADHD.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a great book for animal lovers.

[Charisa Flaherty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every time we read a book together, my kid says it’s good and I say it’s fun. So I challenged him to come up with another word. He said weird. I had to come up with another word too and I said interesting

The kid thought it was kind of weird not having the original students. He liked that Humphrey could stay in room 26. He would change Humphrey getting stuck under a door to the door being the same height as the other doors.

I thought it was interesting. The new students were fun to get to know. I felt that with Mrs Brisbane being so smart she really did a lousy job pairing up the Brisbane buddies - thank goodness for Humphrey!

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoying reading all of the sweet Humphrey stories with my second grader!

[Erika · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read to my 3rd and 4th graders

[Katie Buckingham · Rating 2 out of 5]

My kid likes these, I'm not a fan.

[Cadee · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Room 18 wanted a classroom pet and I thought they were going to take one of their pets from last year's room. Either Humphrey or Og but they got 6 hermit crabs instead. That was good because Humphrey and Og wanted to stay together and also one would be left out of the teams. That would be bad, we don't want anyone to be alone." (Cadee, age 7)

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A new class in Room 26. Would love to know what grade these kids are, does anyone know? New students and jr definitely was a lot to learn about all the new kids, but sets her up for more sequels for this year. My 10 year old loves reading these with me.

[Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this installment!

I loved that Room 26 had a whole new class of students, with a whole new set of problems. I also appreciated that it took time for Humphrey to get used to his new classmates. Even as an adult, sometimes I have to remind myself that you can't compare people you've just met with people you've known for years and years. Friendships take time to develop.

I especially liked the way Mrs. Brisbane handled the two students whom Mrs. Wright accused of misbehaving. I have very strong childhood memories of feeling like I was treated unjustly by a teacher, usually because the teacher made an assumption based on a moment's observation, and I was too shy or too scared to speak up for myself. I so very appreciated the way Mrs. Brisbane took the time to calmly speak with the students to get their sides of the story.

While I read this book with the enthusiasm of potentially giving it a 5-star rating, in the end I had to go with 4 1/2. One reason was the annoying overuse of the word "unsqueakably". When Humphrey first used that word in previous books, I thought it was cute! But suddenly, in this book, he seems to be using it all the time.

Also, I get that Humphrey is supposed to help out the class, but maybe the way he helped out Mrs. Brisbane in this book would have gone over better if Mrs. Brisbane had been a new teacher, like Ms. Mac. I just thought it was ridiculous that Mrs. Brisbane, a 30-year teaching veteran praised for being a great teacher, wouldn't herself know how to best match up students for classroom jobs!

[Emily Orozco · Rating 5 out of 5]

School Days According To Humphrey by Betty G. Birney is a really fun book to read. In the story, Humphrey the hamster of room 26 has just come back from summer break. On his first day back, there are "weird" kids in his classroom and he tries to tell them that they are in the wrong room, well of course the strange students can only hear squeaks because Humphrey is a hamster. He soon has to get used to his classmates because they will be with him for a really long time. " Maybe-just maybe-this school year wouldn't be as bad as I thought! But I changed my mind when two things happened right after morning recess." Humphrey is a funny hamster and couldn't really live with these strange students. He decided to go on some adventures to help these weird students get straight! I recommend this book to people would like a cute hamster story, a fun adventure book, and a cool hamster saving the day.

[Alayna Bates · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this cute book from the perspective of a hamster! It was a unique twist on a story set in a school. I didn't realize this was a series. It makes me want to read the other ones! I enjoyed Humphrey's little character with big plans.

[Tricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

These spur a lot of conversation with my son about dynamics with friends. He likes the stories and I don’t want to poke my eyes out because of poor writing. Birney does a good job for kids and parents alike.

[Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I Really Liked This Book. It was adventurous. I Liked how he says "unsqueakably" instead of "unspeakably." I Also Liked how he didn't know that you switch classrooms every year, and go to the higher grade, so it was fun reading about how he figured that out.

[Phat Duong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Relaxing

[Daniel Stegeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good and funny book.

Humphrey is a great character and if your kids don't like to read this is a great book to start getting them to read. Just do the first book first.

[Micah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read this a couple times because I like it. Hamsters are cute.

[Luis · Rating 4 out of 5]

School days according to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney with 151 pages.

A summary about this book would be how Humphrey is a class pet who is a hamster and he gets to meet some cool kids and he starts liking the kids. He starts spending the year with the kids and is really excited. But when summer comes he is even happier.

What he doesn't know is that every year there are new students. When he realizes that the students aren't the same students from last year, he goes and tries to find the old student. He finds the old students but the shortly realizes that the new students need him. So Humphrey decides that it is best for the students and him if he stays.

I feel like this is a good book because its short and it hooks you from the very start. When I first started reading this book I felt like this book was going to be really good and in my opinion this book is really good. I feel like this is a good book if you like adventures books because this is about how Humphrey

I think the book was well written because it shows a lot of adventures things and I really like adventure and mystery books

I really liked that the author gives a lot of detail and makes you feel like your with the character.

My favorite character is Humphrey because all in all he is just very adventures and he likes to explore and ask a lot of questions

One thing I didn't like about the authors writing was that there wasn't many point of views from different people

I would really recommend this book because it has a lot of adventures and all in all the book is very funny which i'm pretty sure a lot of people will enjoy. I would rate this book a 9/10.

[Emory Rhoten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Humphrey was the classroom hamster in room 26 along with the classroom frog, Og. It is the first day of school and he can’t figure out where all of his friends went from last year. After overhearing several conversations he figures out they are in different classrooms. Now, he has to figure out how to solve different problems these new students have in room 26. He comes up with a plan to pair certain students up together for Brisbane’s Buddies so that they help each other solve their problems. By the end of the story Humphrey decides that this new group of students really needed him and is happy that they are in room 26. This book was so fun and I loved it. It has humor and problem solving that makes it interesting to read even as someone who is older. This is a great book to read to students at the beginning of a school year. It lets students see that there are all kinds of people and we have to find ways to get along with each other and help one another.

[Darci Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Humphrey is hilarious hamster character who kids would enjoy reading about as he tries to figure out what happened to last year's class and why there are new students in his classroom this year. This book could be used as a read-aloud chapter book as it is only told from the perspective of Humphrey, and students could make predictions after reading about what will happen when you read it the next day. It could also be one that students read on their own, as there is a whole Humphrey series, and this may be a good series option for reluctant readers. This would also be a good book if you had a class pet, as you could get students to write from the perspective of the class pet and imagine what they might be thinking and seeing.

[Brad · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a bedtime book with my 1st grader over a couple of weeks. It gets 2 stars from me (better than some other things she has wanted to read) and "100 stars!" from her (she gets pretty excited about things).

It's a nice slice of school life from the perspective of a classroom pet. If I was 7, I would have liked how often the word "unsqueakably" was worked in. But I'm not, and that overuse was enough to drop from 3 to 2 stars. Bummer.

The teachers are good at using appropriate approaches for classroom discipline and helping the kids work together well. I was pleased to see Mrs. Brisbane's approach to handling conflict.

I wonder if we can leverage from here to Sideways Stories from Wayside School... fond memories of that one.

Rating: G

[Emily Leung Sui Lam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this book and its series are fun to read. Firstly, the story is full of adventures and it attracts me to read it. The story is about a classroom hamster which takes turns to go to a student's home at the weekend. And Humphrey solves their problems in life, Humphrey usually unlocks the lock that doesn't lock and slips into their room. Humphrey solves the problem of the Tall Paul and the Short Paul. Once he unlocks the lock that doesn't lock, it becomes very nervous and attracts me to read it. This book is very interesting and I recommend it to my classmates and I will read the rest of the series as it is attractive.

[Christi]

These Humphrey books are always thoroughly enjoyed by our kiddos. Our elementary school provides a book to each family every March for Read Across America and twice in the last several years, the chosen book has been a Humphrey book. The kids/parents are to read a chapter out loud each night, answer a few questions (which are turned in the next day for prize drawings) and in this way, the school reads a book together that month. It is a fun tradition. Our kids are always excited to see what happens next to Humphrey and they can see how the classroom kids interact together and what their problems might be through this unique view. Thanks, Betty Birney!

[Chloe (Always Booked) · Rating 3 out of 5]

These books are perfectly good and wholesome, but also a little repetitive. We listen to these on audio and whew the voices are annoying. In this one, the school year is starting back up but there are NEW KIDS in Mrs. Brisbane's class. Humphrey is stressed and not happy about it because he doesn't understand that the kids move on, even if the teachers stay. The older kids want a class pet so there is discussion of sending either Humphrey or Og to the new teacher. They don't want to be separated so this is the major drama, but we also get to see inside a new set of kids' homes as they take Humphrey home for the weekend.

[Melissa Namba · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a former teacher, I particularly liked this book in the series because it really shows the difficulties that teachers go through trying to make all the kids in a classroom fit. There are so many personalities, issues, and nuances and I am glad that Humphrey is able to see some of the ways that a teacher might try to resolve these issues. I liked the Rosie plotline as well because it emphasizes that a disability is only as disabling as you make it, and Rosie did not make it disabling at all.

[Lynn Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an enjoyable chapter book about a school pet named Humphrey. He was a hamster who was excited to be back in school with his former year classmates, but when the children arrived he hadn't realized they would be another whole group of children. He was upset but gradually discovered he had a whole new set of lives to affect in a positive way.
Cute story with realistic children (unrealistic pets, but fun ones) and a very smart hamster.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Children's fiction, part of a series. My son and I have been enjoying this series narrated by Humphrey the hamster, classroom pet of room 26. The first several books featured the same set of students, but this one starts at the beginning of a new school year. It's cute watching Humphrey try to figure out who these strangers are in the classroom and fun seeing a new set of characters with their own issues.