Guinea Pigs Online 5 – Bunny Trouble

Amanda Swift and Jennifer Gray's Bunny Trouble is a funny animal story for 8 year olds about two tidy guinea pigs and one very messy house guest.

What happens

Fuzzy and Coco have just finished their spring clean when bad news comes on the radio. The Strawberry Park Animal Rescue Centre is closing. That's where their owner Ben works, and the Easter Fair is only four days away.

Whose fault is it? A baby bunny called Binny, who's chewed through every cage in the place. And now Ben has brought her home.

Binny is super cute. She's also a total nightmare. Within minutes she's chewed through the roof of the hutch, eaten the tastiest cabbage leaf and done a big poo on the rest of their tea.

Coco decides to teach her some manners. That ends with a room full of guinea piglets covered in rabbit droppings (and Coco hiding under a cushion).

It's very silly and very funny. If your reader loves a toilet joke they'll be in heaven, and there are plenty of PLOP! PLOP! PLOPs to read out loud.

But there's a softer side too. When Fuzzy shows Binny the rescue centre's website, she bursts into big gulpy sobs. She doesn't want to go back there. She wants a real home. Even Coco, who can't stand her, starts to wonder if Binny is a bit unhappy as well as naughty. It's a nice little moment about what might be going on behind bad behaviour.

Over at the computer, Fuzzy and Terry (both total tech fans) are building a website to get the whole neighbourhood to help save the centre. And their friend Eduardo is sure that what Binny really needs is fresh air and a freedom song.

Coco is a joy. She's bossy and a bit vain, and completely convinced she once lived at Buckingham Palace with the Queen. Can guinea pigs really use a computer? In this house they can, as long as the humans are out.

For a chaotic, warm-hearted animal story that's all about friends, pets and a good cause, it's a great pick.

What to read next

For more of Fuzzy and Coco at number 7, Middleton Crescent, try Guinea Pigs Online, which tells how Ben and Henrietta came to have the pair in the first place.