I, Houdini

I, Houdini
Lynne Reid Banks

Houdini is no ordinary hamster. He is an escapologist with an exceptional talent for getting out of cages and urge to escape leads him to all kinds of adventures…Published into the First Modern Classics list, fantastic stories for young readers.He may look like a small, furry pet, but really he is a Wild Creature – a freedom-loving hamster with a life-long passion for escape and a yearning for the Great Outside, leaving chaos and destruction as he goes.He tells his hilarious adventures with great intelligence and no modesty – for the world beyond carpets and floorboards can be a terrifying place…

I, Houdini

Lynne Reid Banks

The autobiography of a self-educated hamster

Illustrated by Susan Hellard

To Adiel (Mark), Gillon (Adam) and Omri (Guy). And also to the ‘Weissim’, especially David and Annette, without whom we would never have met Houdini.

Table of Contents

Cover Page (#u17f643e5-8549-574b-b87c-a3561cca0091)

Title Page (#u18f323bc-c64f-584f-bf35-03c53e4f24c2)

Dedication (#u5344c6a5-27ab-5c0d-a646-b43c1a43854f)

Chapter One (#udce6bc01-f8d6-5d9d-ac70-f3bd3f952ba0)

Chapter Two (#uff958c77-8ffc-595e-a1cb-32451b70155a)

Chapter Three (#u1e96c8dc-1d91-5087-b199-af043f8c0a4b)

Chapter Four (#u0b066b2f-5bf9-5681-ac7a-d82486bef95a)

Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)

MORE THAN A STORY (#litres_trial_promo)

Top Hamster Facts: (#litres_trial_promo)

WHO WAS THE HUMAN HOUDINI? (#litres_trial_promo)

Fruit ’n’ nutcase (#litres_trial_promo)

BE A DETECTIVE. (#litres_trial_promo)

It’s Magic! (#litres_trial_promo)

Touch the Hamster! (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Also by Lynne Reid Banks (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter One (#ulink_975fadd8-faa6-53ab-8545-f5c6eceb3ef5)

I am Houdini.

No, no, no. Not that one – of course not. He’s dead long ago. Besides, he was a human being and I am a hamster. But let me assure you, that as my namesake was no ordinary man, I am no ordinary animal.

Well, that much is fairly obvious, isn’t it? I mean, what ordinary hamster even knows he’s a hamster? What ordinary hamster can think, reason, observe – in a word, educate himself? Show me the hamster, anywhere, with an intellect, a vocabulary like mine! You can’t. Nor can you show me one which can live with humans on a footing of absolute equality because he can understand their language, and because, quite frankly, he has more brains in his head than most of them have.

I fear you will think me conceited. I assure you I’m not. It’s merely that I have a just and objective appreciation of my own exceptional qualities. It would be as futile to deny that I am exceptional, as it would be for an ordinary hamster to boast that he was my equal.

Besides, if I were conceited I would claim to be perfect. I don’t. Certainly not! I have my faults and weaknesses, my moments of frailty. I too have made mistakes, succumbed to temptations. But I think I may fairly claim to have built up my character, over the months of my long life, until not many fingers could be pointed at me in accusation. Indisputably I conduct myself with more wisdom, ingenuity and restraint than many of the humans I see about me – not that that’s saying much.

Here, then, is the story of my life so far. From it you may judge if I am not, in truth, as extraordinary in my ways as the Great Houdini was in his.

My birth and infancy are almost lost in the mists of memory. I think I may have begun life in a pet shop. It was certainly a large, cold, airy place, exceedingly smelly. Every now and then I catch a whiff which carries me back to those dimly remembered early days

– when a friend of my family brings a dog to the house, for instance, and once when I met a mouse, which I shall tell about in its turn.

At all events it was not a bad place, and I remember I had companions of my own kind there, who gave me warmth by day when we all cuddled up together to sleep.

It’s strange that, when I think now about living with other hamsters, I shudder with horror at the idea. With one exception I have never seen another hamster since I became mature. And believe me I never want to. If I ever did see one, I believe I would be overcome with rage, and fly to attack it. Why this should be, I don’t know, for I have a very calm temper as a rule, and despise those who lose their self-control (something I see all too often in this house, I regret to say). So, whatever I have to complain of in my life, it is not loneliness. I am never lonely.