Hamtaro's ABC

by Ritsuko Kawai (Creator), Naoko Amemiyo

Meet Hamtaro and his gang of hamsters, known as "The Ham-Ham Gang" as they join forces to help children learn the alphabet. The Hamtaro characters teach the alphabet with this uniquely shaped board book, perfect for little hands to grasp. "D" is for "doughnut"—and Hamtaro and Howdy are rolling around in doughnut inner tubes. "N" is for "nail"—and Panda has hammered nails into a board in the shape of the letter. "S" is for "star"—and the Ham-Ham friends are hanging from stars on swings.

24 pages, Board book

First published August 5, 2003

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.