Wedgie & Gizmo is a story of good and evil! Loyalty and cunning! Dog and hamster! This tale is full of fun, laughs, and zaniness that is sure to delight young readers. The story is told through the voices of the family pets: a dog and a hamster who couldn’t be more different in personality. Wedgie is a faithful, lovable dog who is as short on brains as he is full of loyalty. Gizmo is a hamster who is long on brains and short on scruples. Each struggles to carve out his place of importance in the family–and the world.

Selfors has a gift for seeing the world from an unorthodox point of view, and this results in a hilarious narration that leaves the reader thinking that maybe this stream-of-animal-consciousness monologue is, in fact, what a dog or a hamster might think of what is going on around it. Several places in this book made me laugh out loud as an adult. A reader of the age group at which this book is aimed would likely have laughing fits. The novel is a fun, fast-paced story that is just the right “chapter book” length to keep a middle grade reader interested yet give them a sense of accomplishment when they finish it. 

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  None

Violence/Gore:  An animal bites a human a few times with no injury in comic scenes. An animal nearly dies of dehydration, but this is neither graphic nor extended. An animal thinks that he is going to be eaten by another character.

Sex/Nudity:  An animal has a long-distance girlfriend who he tries to send love-letters to, thinks about, and dreams of marrying, but none of this is sexual or suggestive, and it is all humorous and light-hearted.

Mature Subject Matter:

Difficulty merging into a blended family; moving away from friends to a new place.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

None