I have been reading Friendship According to Humphrey by Betty Birney. In the previous book in the series, The World According to Humphrey (by the same author), Mrs. Mac, a substitute teacher, bought Humphrey for room 26. She had to leave so the real teacher, Mrs. Brisbane, could take over. Mrs. Brisbane does not like Humphrey very much, but the students in Room 26 love Humphrey so he got to stay. By the end of the first book about Humphrey, Mrs. Brisbane began to like the hamster and even took him home for the winter break.
In the sequel, Humphrey has come back to Room 26, which he has not been in for two weeks because of winter break. His biggest problem with the changes that are happening in Room 26 is the new classroom pet, who Humphrey the Hamster envies. The name of the new class pet is Og, who is a frog. What has been giving Humphrey trouble is the fact that he is able to make friends with everybody in Room 26 except for Og. He also has other problems, like Abbey, Miranda’s new cousin, who has been very crabby. Also, his pal Aldo Amato has just gotten married and now his wife is suggesting that he go back to college. Aldo has been a custodian fore a long time, ever since his dad died.
I have got through about three-fourths of the book, and Humphrey still has not made friends with Og yet. Every time Humphrey tries to talk to Og, the latter replies with either a twangy sound, or silence. I do not know if Og is going to try and make friends with Humphrey. Og does not get taken home by students like Humphrey does, but once he got a swimming pool built for him by the teacher’s husband.
Since the Poetry Festival is coming soon, everybody is thinking of poems. But unfortunately for Humphrey, most of the poems are about Og. Humphrey is slowly getting jealous of Og as the frog gets all the attention. In the meantime, Humphrey has added problems aside from Og; he has met the school bully, Martin Bean, and even rebelled against Bean because his friends had trouble with this boy. However, Bean got a whole lot nicer at Richie’s birthday party and started making actual friends, so Humphrey has forgiven Bean. Besides Humphrey cannot really talk to Bean – Humphrey is a hamster and Bean is human!
So, this is how much I have read, which is quite a lot of this book. In my opinion, I feel Og is very rude and needs to try better to make friends with Humphrey. I would recommend this book to anybody because it is nice story about friendship and I am sure Og and Humphrey will be friends by the end ogf the book. I will keep you reported!
