Undead Pets 1 – Return of the Hungry Hamster

Sam Hay's Return of the Hungry Hamster is the first Undead Pets book, a funny and gloriously gross story for 6 year olds about a boy who wishes for a pet and gets a zombie hamster.

What happens

Joe is desperate for a dog. His mum only has to hear the word pet and she starts sneezing, so that's never going to happen. Then his great-uncle Charlie comes back from a dig in Egypt with a present. It's a black stone amulet shaped like a jackal, and it grants one wish.

Joe wishes for a pet. That night there's a scritchy-scratchy noise under his bed.

It's a hamster. Sort of. He's green round the edges with big red staring eyes, and when he sneezes one of his eyeballs pops out! His name is Dumpling. He's already died, and he can't move on to the afterlife until Joe helps him with a worry.

Dumpling is very, very greedy (he eats when he's anxious, and he's always anxious). Crisps, pens, socks, Mum's bath sponge, even the headmaster's packed lunch. Nobody else can see him, so Joe gets the blame for all of it.

It's brilliant fun to read. Joe tries to get rid of the amulet down a drain, in the garden and down the loo, and it keeps coming back. His big sister is sure he's talking to an imaginary friend. And Dumpling is the kind of whiny, bossy sidekick children will love to groan at.

The worry itself is surprisingly sweet. Dumpling wants to know that Oliver, the boy who looked after him, is OK without him. But when Joe finally finds Oliver in the playground, he doesn't look sad at all. Why not? That's the mystery Joe has to solve, and he ends up pretending to be a hamster expert to do it.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

The whole story starts because a pet has died, and a hamster that died in an accident with a vacuum cleaner is the joke at its centre. It's backstory, not something that happens on the page, and it's all played for laughs. But a child who's just lost a pet might not find it funny yet. For most young readers, it's exactly the right amount of disgusting.

What to read next

If Dumpling goes down well, Revenge of the Phantom Furball is the next Undead Pets book. This time a bandaged grey cat called Pickle leaps out of a display toilet in a DIY superstore and asks Joe for help.