Hamtaro Punch-Out Activity Book

by Ritsuko Kawai (Creator)

This book uses the Hamtaro phenomenon based on the adventures of ten-year-old Laura, her insatiably curious pet golden hamster, Hamtaro, and his zany Ham-Ham Gang to teach kids ages six to eight the fun of exploring a colorful fantasy world and adding their own ideas to it. Hamtaro Punch-Out Activity Book contains a cardboard playhouse and characters for children to build and play with, as well as mazes, games, stories, other activities, and exclusive character profiles based on Ritsuko Kawai's best-selling manga series, Hamtaro Tales.

24 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2002

About the author

Ritsuko Kawai (河井 リツ子 Kawai Ritsuko, born March 3, 1964) is a Japanese manga artist known as the creator of the Hamtaro franchise. She was born in Osaka, Japan, and received a design degree from Kyoto Saga University of Arts. After graduation, she set out to Tokyo to seek her fortune as a comic-book artist.

Kawai originally created Hamtaro as storybooks for children first published in 1997 (serialized in Shogaku Ni Nensei, a magazine for Japanese schoolchildren published by Shogakukan) and adapted into an anime television series in Japan in July 2000. The animation series based on her Hamtaro books began broadcasting in English in the United States in July of 2002. Her Hamtaro books have sold more than 6 million copies in Japan.

Other than Hamtaro, Ritsuko Kawai has created other shōjo manga, serialized in Ciao magazine.