Guinea Pigs Don't Talk: An Engaging Chapter Book About Classroom Pets and Mischief for Kids

by Laurie Myers, Laurie Myers

From the first day at a new school, Lisa and her bossy classmate, Angel, begin playing a series of mischievous tricks on each other, with the class guinea pigs as unwitting accomplices, until the teacher steps in.

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Laurie Myers is the award-winning author of chapter books for children, including Surviving Brick Johnson, an ALA notable book, and Lewis and Clark and Me, winner of the PA Children's book award and Honor book for Michigan. Her books have been on the International Reading Associations Children's Choice, Parents' Choice, and Teachers' Choice lists, as well as Junior Library Guild selection and many state master lists.

Laurie and her sister, Betsy Duffey (goodreads author), write adult fiction together as the Writing Sisters.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

My 7 year old son picked this out for me to read a loud to him and his sisters for the local summer reading program, it was a cute enough book for our family who loves having guinea pigs as pets (we've had 4) however I have two words of caution - there is some pranks that go on between two of the 'new' girls and two children who have been at the school a long time, today, the pranks would be called bullying. There is no real discipline for any of the children who misbehave, making it seem like it's okay (it's dangerous for guinea pigs to eat sweets but this action is overlooked) and when the one girl lies to the teacher in order to make a truce between her, her friend and the two other students nothing is done. I will say it did open up a discussion between my three children and I and all of them were like she got away with lying to a teacher. Cute book but I would have liked to see the children learn from their bullying, pranks and lying instead of them being thought of as cute, just being kids, etc.

[Joy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfortunately, I have to give this one star. While I loved the premise of a book being about classroom Guinea pigs, the book also has the students harming the Guinea pigs. At first, a student plays a prank on another student by telling her to put the 2 male Guinea pigs in the same cage. She does; they fight, and the one Guinea pig’s ear is taken off. In another incident, a student plants one of the Guinea pigs in another student’s lunch box so he will eat her snack cakes. This is a ridiculous premise, because most Guinea pigs won’t eat processed food. But if they did, it would be incredibly dangerous to them (because they can’t eat process food). This book should not be in circulation, because it’s promoting harm to Guinea pigs. I’m sure it’s intended to be a cute story, but it’s terrible.

[Lily]

Amazing