Hamtaro, Let's Play, Vol. 4: A Playground for Ham-Hams

Hamtaro, Let's Play! #4

by Ritsuko Kawai

When ten-year-old Laura moves to a new town, she and her pet hamster, Hamtaro, must find new friends to play with. Lovable Hamtaro and his new hamster pals form the Ham-Ham Gang to help Laura solve problems and to embark on countless adventures together. This time around, the gang creates its own park—but they'd better watch out for unexpected visitors! Included are full-color games, puzzles, reusable stickers, and original Hamtaro picture-book stories in this new Hamtaro stick 'n' play book. Hamtaro is the number-one licensed character brand in Japan.

16 pages, Board Book

First published January 1, 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.

Reviews

[Holly Letson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Little Hamsters, Big Adventures.