Hamtaro Hamster Care Guide

by Ritsuko Kawai (Illustrations), Mizue Ono (Text), Hideyuki Asakura (Photography)

Hamsters have a long history of popularity with children everywhere, and in Japan their popularity has skyrocketed. Driving the phenomenon is Ritsuko Kawai's hugely popular manga series, Hamtaro Tales. Now kids who want to raise real hamsters can do so with the help of this lively veterinarian-approved guide. The process of choosing and raising a hamster is covered, and photos of real hamsters engage young readers.

Paperback

First published November 1, 2002

About the author

Ritsuko Kawai (河井 リツ子 Kawai Ritsuko, born March 3, 1964) is a Japanese manga artist known as the creator of the Hamtaro franchise. She was born in Osaka, Japan, and received a design degree from Kyoto Saga University of Arts. After graduation, she set out to Tokyo to seek her fortune as a comic-book artist.

Kawai originally created Hamtaro as storybooks for children first published in 1997 (serialized in Shogaku Ni Nensei, a magazine for Japanese schoolchildren published by Shogakukan) and adapted into an anime television series in Japan in July 2000. The animation series based on her Hamtaro books began broadcasting in English in the United States in July of 2002. Her Hamtaro books have sold more than 6 million copies in Japan.

Other than Hamtaro, Ritsuko Kawai has created other shōjo manga, serialized in Ciao magazine.