TIME TRAVELING WITH A HAMSTER, by Ross Welford

The story: On his 12th birthday, Al Chaudhury receives a letter from his dead father, challenging him to find and use a time machine that dad invented to go back in time and prevent the accident that will cause his father to die way too young. But time travel is a tricky thing, and of all the possible outcomes, there's only one that would actually be better. All the rest would be much, much worse...

June Cleaver's ratings: Language PG; Violence PG; Sexual content G; Nudity G; Substance abuse PG; Magic & the occult G; GLBT content G; adult themes (death of a parent) PG; overall rating PG.

Liz's comments: I did like this story, but I'm not sure MS readers will stick with it through all the variations of his life caused by time travel. The story just seemed to take too much...time. Still, both Booklist and Kirkus gave it starred reviews, so there's that.