Faber's bestselling hamster series is given a smart new livery, repositioning our favourite as a perennial classic character, sitting alongside the likes of Winnie the Pooh and Wind in Willows. 'The time had arrived to put my Plan into action. I was in grave danger and I had no choice. I only had one weapon: a rubber band. It had taken me a long time to get it hooked around the edge of my food dish.

Now I carefully pulled it back as far as I could, aiming directly at those big doggy nostrils.'You can learn a lot about life by observing another species.

That's what Humphrey was told when he was bought as a classroom pet for Room 26. And it's definitely true! In addition to his classroom escapades, each weekend he gets to sleep over with a different student like Stop-Giggling-Gail and Repeat-That-Please-Richie.

Humphrey learns to read, write, shoot rubber bands and much more.

With adventures galore, Humphrey's life would be absolutely perfect if only the teacher, Mrs Brisbane, wasn't out to get him . . .