Is My Hamster Wild?: The Secret Lives of Hamsters, Gerbils & Guinea Pigs

by Rose McLarney, Rain Newcomb

Everyday pet or wild creature? When we think of hamsters, we imagine them domesticated, in cages, running around on exercise wheels. But did you know that they, along with some very close relatives, also live in the wild? From gerbils in Africa to guinea pigs in South America, these popular creatures are found all over the world. This newest volume in Lark’s superb science series—which includes the award-winning Is My Dog a Wolf ?—lets kids take an up-close look at where these rodents live, what they eat, what their families are like, how they travel and communicate, and other fascinating behaviors. (Not only will children learn more about these animals in nature, they’ll get a better understanding of their tame cousins at the same time.) Most of the spreads are self-contained, so kids can either read from start to finish, or flip through and find out all about something specific. Sidebars, lots of engaging captions, bold headers, blurbs, and plenty of big, entertaining pictures of animals in action communicate concepts quickly and capture the attention.

64 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2008

About the author

Rose McLarney’s collections of poems are Colorfast (2024), Forage (2019), and Its Day Being Gone (2014), from Penguin Poets, as well as The Always Broken Plates of Mountains (2012), published by Four Way Books. She is co-editor of A Literary Field Guide to Southern Appalachia, from University of Georgia Press, and the journal Southern Humanities Review. Rose has been awarded fellowships by MacDowell and the Bread Loaf and Sewanee Writers’ Conferences; served as Dartmouth Poet in Residence at the Frost Place; and is winner of the National Poetry Series, the Chaffin Award for Achievement in Appalachian Writing, and other prizes. Her poetry and essays have appeared in publications including American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, New England Review, Prairie Schooner, Orion, and The Oxford American. Rose is a professor of creative writing at Auburn University.