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Text copyright © 2015 by Janet Tashjian
Illustrations copyright © 2015 by Jake Tashjian
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tashjian, Janet.
Einstein the class hamster saves the library / Janet Tashjian ; illustrated by Jake
Tashjian.—First edition.
pages cm
Summary: When Principal Decker closes Boerring Elementary School’s library due
to severe budget cuts, Einstein and his friends in Ms. Moreno’s class
try to reopen it by planning fund-raisers, including shooting a video
that stars Einstein and Marlon the turtle.
eISBN 978-1-62779-767-2
[1. Hamsters—Fiction. 2. Schools—Fiction. 3. Humorous stories.] I. Title.
PZ7.T211135Ejm 2015 [Fic]—dc23 2014045668
First Edition—2015
Printed in the United States of America by R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company,
Harrisonburg, Virginia
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
To oUr fAvOrItE pEoPlE
iN tHe wOrLd—
lIbRaRiAnS
AlSo bY JaNeT aNd JaKe TaShJiAn
The Einstein the Class Hamster Series:
Einstein the Class Hamster
Einstein the Class Hamster and the Very Real Game Show
The My Life Series:
My Life as a Book
My Life as a Stuntboy
My Life as a Cartoonist
My Life as a Joke
My Life as a Gamer
“The most precious things in life are not
those you get for money.”
—ALBERT EINSTEIN
“I know money can’t bring happiness—
but sometimes money is what you need!”
—EINSTEIN THE CLASS HAMSTER
CHAPTER ONE
ACrIsIs
“Welcome to another episode of
AnSwEr
ThAt
QuEsTiOn!
Today our contestant is Bonnie
Thompson!”
Einstein pointed to Bonnie, quietly
writing at her desk.
“I’m not sure she knows she’s on
your show today,” Marlon said.
“Maybe if I command her to hear
me, she’ll come over.” Einstein closed
his eyes and concentrated on getting
Bonnie to stand up. You want to be
on my game show. You can’t wait to
hear the latest Tasty Tidbit.
But Bonnie continued to work.
“That went well,” Marlon said.
Einstein persisted. “She’s getting
up! She’s coming over!
“She’s sharpening her pencil,”
Marlon said.
Einstein ignored him. “The topic of
today’s first round is CLOUDS. I hope
all you contestants brought your
umbrellas!”
Einstein watched sadly as Bonnie
sharpened her pencil and returned to
her seat.
“Looks
like it’s
raining on
YOU,”
Marlon
said.
Show business had its ups and
downs—didn’t Marlon know that? And
as far as “up” was concerned, nothing
made Einstein happier than seeing his
friend Ned, who was the only one of
his classmates who could actually
hear him.
“I just overheard Principal Decker
talking to Ms. Moreno,” Ned said. “I’m
not sure what they were talking
about, but it sounded like bad news.”
Einstein threw himself into the pile
of shredded paper in the corner of
his tank. First Bonnie, now this?
Ms. Moreno addressed the class.
“Everyone in their seats. I have an
announcement to make.”
Einstein buried himself deeper in his
paper cave.
“Psssst!” Marlon called from his
tank. “Maybe the bad news is that
they’re getting rid of Twinkles—
maybe it’s actually GOOD news.”
Twinkles the Python was the
scourge of Boerring Elementary. He
was Principal Decker’s favorite, but
he spent every waking minute trying
to eat the other class pets.
Einstein scurried out from his
hiding place to hear what Ms. Moreno
had to say.
“Our school’s in a financial crisis,”
she said. “And Principal Decker has to
make some serious budget cuts.”
Einstein crossed his fingers and
toes. Please say you’re getting rid of
Twinkles!
“As of today,” Ms. Moreno
continued, “our school library will be
closed.”
“NOOOOOOOOO!” Einstein
shouted.
Closing the library? Einstein
couldn’t imagine anything worse.
Rain, snow, sleet, and hail are all forms
of precipitation that fall from clouds.
Clouds are formed by tiny drops of water,
sometimes millions of pounds of them.
The main types of clouds are cumulus
(puffy, like cotton), cirrus (wispy and thin,
high in the sky), and stratus (flat, like
layered sheets).
Fog is a kind of
stratus cloud,
appearing very low
to the ground.
SHOULD I?
CHAPTER TWO
A WoRd AbOuT
LiBrArIeS
Einstein jumped onto his hamster
wheel and started to run.
HOW COULD THEY
CLOSE THE
LIBRARY?
It was the
HEART of the
school!
He ran faster and faster as images
filled his head:
• Following his parents through the
tunnels of the school until he came
to a room full of books—like a
thousand Christmases rolled into one.
• Lying on the rug, spending hours
enjoying the illustrations in a
favorite picture book.
• Burying his head
inside the latest
volume, inhaling
that new-book
smell.
Einstein had to see if this horrible
news was true. He snuck out of his
tank and down the hall. He scurried
into the hole in the wall behind the
water fountain and entered the
complex system of tunnels his
ancestors had dug years before.
After several minutes, he arrived in
the reference section of the library
(his favorite part).
Ms. Remington, the librarian, was
packing up her desk with Principal
Decker.
It IS true, Einstein thought. Ms.
Remington—please don’t go!
Principal Decker looked almost as
depressed as Ms. Remington did.
“We’re going to reopen
this library as soon as
possible,” the principal said.
“It’s my highest
priority.”
Ms. Remington carefully wrapped
the photographs of her students at
Storytime. Everyone looks so happy
in those pictures, Einstein thought.
Everyone loves stories.
“My hands are tied,” Principal
Decker continued. “I wish there was
something I could do.”
As Einstein looked at how beautiful
Ms. Remington had made the library
over the years, he thought he might
the beanbag chairs, the books in
colorful bins all neatly labeled—Ms.
Remington had put so much effort
into this school.
Principal Decker led Ms. Remington
to the library door, then took out a
large padlock. “There’s a whole
procedure we have to follow when a
library closes,” he told her. “Hopefully
we can reopen soon.”
From his hiding place, Einstein
watched the principal padlock the
door. He couldn’t remember ever
feeling so sad.
The oldest federal cultural institution
in the United States is the Library of
Congress. It was established by President
John Adams in 1800. It’s the largest
library in the world, with 838 miles of
bookshelves.
Americans visit libraries three times
more often than they go to the movies!
CHAPTER THREE
We NeEd A
PlAn
When the rest of the class went to
recess, Ned tried to calm Einstein
down. “Get off that wheel—you’ll
waste away to nothing.”
But Einstein
continued to run.
“We’ve GOT to
save the library!”
he panted.
“I’m sure if we put
our heads together, we can come up
with something,” Ned said.
“Ahh, here comes the traitor now.”
Einstein gestured to Principal Decker,
who was wearing Twinkles like a scarf.
“With your precious books gone,
maybe you’ll have time for some
other activities,” Twinkles hissed. “Like
playing hide-and-SQUEAK—I mean
SEEK—with your friends.”
“Go away,” Einstein said. “You’re
making things worse.”
“Are you sure you don’t need a
hug?” Twinkles continued. “It might
cheer you up.”
“Get lost,” Marlon said. “No one
wants to be squeezed and eaten
today, thank you very much.”
Ned ducked behind the shelf
and gestured for the class pets to
be quiet.
“I don’t want to close the library
either, but money doesn’t grow on
trees,” Principal Decker told Ms.
Moreno.
Einstein rolled his eyes.
“Thanks for the botany
lesson, Principal Decker.”
“You know what they
say,” Ms. Moreno
added. “‘A room
without books is like a
body without a soul.’”
“That’s a quote from
Cicero,” Einstein whispered to Marlon.
Ms. Moreno smiled. “The library is
the soul of our school, Principal
Decker. We need to find a
solution.”
“Ms. Moreno, we’re
behind you one
hundred percent,”
Einstein shouted.
Ned waited until the others left
before coming out from his hiding
place. “We’re going to do this,” he
told Einstein. “We’re going to save
the library.”
Einstein wanted to believe him.
After recess, all the students
wanted to talk about were ways to
save the library.
“We can have a bake sale,” Bonnie
told Ms. Moreno. “You can make your
famous turducken cupcakes.”
Ms. Moreno beamed. “My cupcakes
ARE delicious. But I’m
afraid this is
going to take
more than a
bake sale.”
“How about a
skateboarding
competition?”
can race around
town and take
donations.”
“We can have a carnival in the
parking lot,” Ned suggested. “With a
Ferris wheel, games,
and cotton candy!”
Ms. Moreno
added all the
suggestions to
the board. Inside
his tank,
Einstein made
his own list.
“How about if we chain ourselves
to the radiators?”
“This school doesn’t have radiators,”
Marlon said.
“Or go on a starvation diet?”
“You wouldn’t last a day without
food.”
“Why don’t we go to tonight’s town
meeting,” Ned suggested, “and tell
everyone why they can’t close the
library.”
“That’s an excellent idea,” Ms.
Moreno said. “Why, I bet—” But
before she could finish her sentence,
Ms. Moreno was fast asleep on her
feet.
Ned tiptoed back to his seat, not
wanting to wake her up.
Ms. Moreno’s students were used
to her frequent napping. Their
teacher had the bad habit of staying
up all night to watch infomercials,
with the disastrous consequence of
falling asleep several times during the
day. But she was so happy and
knowledgeable when awake that her
students always covered for her with
Principal Decker (who was usually too
busy with Twinkles to notice).
“What do you say?” Ned whispered
to his classmates. “Should we try and
get the Town Board to change their
minds?”
YES!
“Yes!” the others whispered back.
Einstein knew his classmates would
need lots of research to back up their
arguments. Luckily for them, he was
a research whiz.
Cotton candy has only two ingredients:
colored sugar and air. It was originally
called “Fairy Floss” and introduced to the
masses at the 1904 World’s Fair, which
also popularized hot dogs, hamburgers,
Dr Pepper, waffle cones, and iced tea.
Unlike those treats, cotton candy is made
&
nbsp; of more than 50 percent air. The sugary
sweet was invented by
a candy maker—
and a dentist!
CHAPTER FOUR
WhEn OnLy A
LiBrArY WiLl Do
Nothing made Einstein happier
than doing research. Finding new
facts was what he lived for, and
now he had a chance to really help
his class. He looked up statistics for
hours; he scoured town records; he
even studied the archive of dusty
manuscripts Ms. Remington kept
locked away with the town’s
historical documents.
In looking for information to save
the library, Einstein came across lots
of GREAT facts that he was excited
to use on AnSwEr . . . ThAt . . .
QuEsTiOn.
He couldn’t believe all the new
Tasty Tidbits he found:
• The boardwalk in Atlantic City,
New Jersey, is the longest and
oldest boardwalk in the world.
• A ten-gallon hat does NOT hold ten
gallons. (It doesn’t even hold one.)
• An adult dragonfly lives only a few
months.
• A giraffe’s tongue is so long it can
clean its own ears with it.
• One type of hummingbird weighs
less than a penny.
There was no doubt about it. Even