Frank and the New Narkiz - Livi Michael

It's shortly after Christmas and, once more, all is less than peaceful on Bright St. A suspicious couple are knocking on doors, rounding up hamsters to win prizes in international shows. Lured as ever by vanity, Mabel voluntarily goes with Marcia Taylor and Vernon Maid, while Frank is alerted to danger by the black hamste. He manages to infiltrate their clinic and discovers that the steps they take to produce a prize-winning hamster are rather unusual.
In Taylor-Maid laboratories hamsters are genetically modified, or scientifically 'improved'. In the horrifying surroundings, Frank not only faces his greatest fear but he is finally reunited with his mother, Leila.

Meanwhile, the New Narkiz is under threat as planning permission is granted to build houses on The Wild.
Daisy and the new cubs go missing, and it is up to George and Little Elsie to find them.
This is a terrifically exciting and poignant story of how the New Narkiz is finally established, and of how one hamster (namely Frank) must pay the ultimate price.

Livi Michael has published six novels for adults: Rebellion, published in 2015, Succession, published in 2014; Under a Thin Moon which won the Arthur Welton award in 1992; Their Angel Reach which won the Faber Prize in 1995; All the Dark Air (1997) which was shortlisted for the Mind Award; and Inheritance, which won a Society of Authors Award. Livi has two sons and lives in Greater Manchester. She teaches creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University and has been a senior lecturer in Creative Writing at Sheffield Hallam University.