(+++) ALL FOR ONE AND ONE FOR ALL

Ned and the Great Garden Hamster Race. By Kim Hillyard. Penguin Workshop. $14.99.

     Lest there be any doubt about the real topic of this book, the front cover – beneath the title but in very clear and bright letters – proclaims Ned and the Great Garden Hamster Race to be “A Story about Kindness.” That is, it is not about any sort of race – not really. And not about hamsters – not really. Not even cartoon hamsters – no, not really. Aimed as it is at the youngest readers and even pre-readers, Kim Hillyard’s book is first and foremost a teaching/advocacy tool, with the author using the trappings of a supposed competitive event to demonstrate good reasons not to be competitive.

     This is a trifle strange, and adults reading the book with or to young kids may think the setup does not quite work. But children will likely enjoy the tale of six cartoon hamsters of varied appearance competing in a race and then not competing in a race – that being Hillyard’s whole point.

     “Hamsters from all over the world have come to take part” in the competition, Hillyard writes, showing five that are different from each other and also from Ned, who looks the most like an actual hamster (a cartoon one, anyway). The race appears to be a big Olympic-style deal, drawing worldwide competitors and causing Ned himself to have been in training for who-knows-how-long. And when the race starts, well-trained Ned speeds to the front of the pack and continues zipping along even when a nearby slug comments on being lost, some pigeons say they are hungry, and someone-or-something calls for help after falling into a hole. Competitive spirit dominates! Until – well, Ned himself gets stuck, and a very toothy fox suddenly appears; but luckily it turns out that “this is not a hamster-eating fox!” The fox helps Ned and gives him a small flower, which Ned looks at thoughtfully. And then he abandons the Olympic-style race for which he has trained long and hard, and goes back to the critters that need help: he rescues what turns out to be a rabbit from the hole, brings carrot sandwiches to the pigeons (no idea where he found those, unless the rabbit supplied them), and escorts the slug to her slug family.

     Then, and only then, Ned resumes the race – even though it is now dark and things have obviously been wrapped up a very long time ago. But no! Lo and behold, as Ned approaches the finish line, he finds all five other hamster racers waiting for him: they have not tried to help the rabbit, pigeons or slug (why not is unclear), but have waited patiently while Ned did all the helping. And all six competitors cross the finish line at the same time, united in the solidarity of helpfulness (well, sort of united: why didn’t the others help Ned help out?).

     Hillyard’s admirable intention here is to teach that kindness matters more than competitiveness, which is all well and good but may not be a lesson that adults should urge children to absorb in the context of sports, which by their very nature are designed to create winners and losers. Because the book targets such young children, its lapses of logic and use of a framing tale of sports cooperativeness will probably go unnoticed and unremarked by its intended audience. And kids really will enjoy the illustrations, in which all the different hamsters are roly-poly (each in its own way) and all have huge and appealing stares that make them seem wide-eyed with spirit (whether competitive or helpful). It is probably best for adults just to let things go if very young children accept this kindness lesson at face value, as Hillyard obviously hopes will be the case. But if a child is a bit older and a bit more experienced with competitive realities – that is, is in kindergarten or a later grade – adults should not be surprised to be told that participants do not stop competing in sports events to help other people, except in a genuine emergency (and not always then). The best that an adult faced with that observation can do at that point is probably to shrug and say, “Well, it’s just a story. And it really is nice to be kind and helpful.” That, after all, is this book’s foundational message.