Hamsters Don't Glow in the Dark

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

These latest two instalments in the Abbey and Tess Pet-Sitters series
are about two young girls, 10-year-old Abby and her younger sister Tess,
who have started a pet-sitting business. Invariably, the two girls
discover that minding other people’s pets can be a challenge as well
as a calling.

In Hamsters Don’t Glow in the Dark, the sisters meet Mr. Nibbles, a
finger-chomping rodent with a wild-and-woolly haircut. The sisters think
they have Mr. Nibbles under control until he pulls a Houdini-style
disappearing act in their no-pets-allowed apartment building. Tess and
Abbey race to find Mr. Nibbles before their crabby superintendent does.

In Piglets Don’t Watch Television, the sisters house-sit Prissy, a
pampered pot-bellied pig who has her own room, toys, and television.
Taking care of Prissy is tough enough but a rash of strange incidents
has the girls also wondering whether they might also have a prowler in
the house.

Although the plots of both books follow the same general theme, Wiebe
makes the stories interesting by injecting lots of humor and varying the
animal in each book. She also describes pet ownership accurately by
mentioning some of the negative aspects of owning certain animals; Tess
and Abbey find out that some animals bite and all of them poop. These
are fine stories for young readers making the transition from picture to
chapter books. Highly recommended.