Guinea Pigs Online 6 – The Ice Factor

Jennifer Gray and Amanda Swift's The Ice Factor is a funny Guinea Pigs Online story for 8 year olds about two pet guinea pigs, one laptop and a VERY snowy winter.

What happens

Fuzzy and Coco live in the kitchen at number 7, Middleton Crescent, and they're arguing over the laptop. Coco needs to see the newest Ice Factor episode, a skating competition with celebrities (she likes to see each episode ten times). Fuzzy needs to rewatch a cookery programme so he can make Volcano Veg.

The arguing is honestly the best bit. "No, it isn't." "Yes, it is." It goes back and forth like a real brother and sister, and your reader will probably recognise every round of it.

Then a snowball comes through the catflap, starts wriggling and turns out to be Eduardo, their Agouti friend from Peru. The food left out for the wild animals in the copse keeps disappearing, and everyone's going hungry.

So the pets of Strawberry Park spring into action. Terry from next door puts out a call on Micespace, which is how the animals talk to each other online. Fuzzy runs a soup kitchen in the old hutch (with slightly less chilli this time). Eduardo takes two of the littlest guinea pigs out in a toy truck with a ruler tied to the front as a snow plough.

And Coco has an idea of her own. She's going to hold an Ice Factor competition on the frozen stream, with her tiara on. She even gets two skating champions to come and teach her, a pair of hares she's only ever chatted to online. You can probably guess how sensible that is!

It's all very silly, with a sneaky cat in a squirrel onesie and a TV survival hero who isn't quite what he seems. But there's a proper message tucked inside about talking to strangers on the internet, and it lands without any lecturing. It's also lovely about looking after the animals who have nothing when it's cold.

It's number six in the series, but the characters are introduced as they go, so your reader can happily start here. Coco can be a bit mean in a row (she calls her friend Banoffee fatty), and Fuzzy tells her off straight away.

What to read next

If they'd like to go back to where it all began, the very first Guinea Pigs Online book is in the library too. Fuzzy dreams of being a TV chef and starts by throwing eggs, ketchup and washing-up liquid into the blender.