Hamster Princess
#1004.23 adjusted 4.21 for sample size in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 6 books Status Complete 2015–2018 Reading commitment Medium Ursula Vernon Last reviewed 2026-09-05
Overview
Hamster Princess follows Harriet Hamsterbone, a rodent princess cursed at birth to prick her finger on a hamster wheel and die at twelve; rather than avoid the curse, Harriet treats it as a loophole granting her near-invincibility until then, and spends the series seeking out dragons, giants, and other classic fairy-tale dangers head-on. The six illustrated volumes, published by Dial Books between 2015 and 2018, each parody a different fairy tale -- Sleeping Beauty, the Pied Piper, Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, and Little Red Riding Hood -- through Ursula Vernon's comic prose and cartoon-style illustrations, written under her own name rather than her adult-fiction pen name T. Kingfisher. The series continues Vernon's pattern of award-recognized children's fantasy: her other middle-grade work has won the Mythopoeic Award for Children's Literature and the Andre Norton Award, and Hamster Princess shares its irreverent, fourth-wall-aware humor and subversive take on fairy-tale heroines with those better-known titles, establishing Harriet as one of the more distinctive comic protagonists in contemporary children's fantasy.
Fairy-tale retelling, Comic fantasy · For Middle grade
Core Canon: Reading Order (6 works) counts toward ranking
Hamster Princess T. Kingfisher
| Work | Year | Internal chron. | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Harriet the Invincible | 2015 | 1 | core | 4.16 (4,374 ratings) |
 | Of Mice and Magic | 2016 | 2 | core | 4.30 (1,414 ratings) |
 | Ratpunzel | 2016 | 3 | core | 4.31 (1,003 ratings) |
 | Giant Trouble | 2017 | 4 | core | 4.26 (768 ratings) |
 | Whiskerella | 2018 | 5 | core | 4.39 (703 ratings) |
 | Little Red Rodent Hood | 2018 | 6 | core | 4.29 (562 ratings) |
A completed six-book illustrated middle-grade fairy-tale-parody series about Harriet Hamsterbone, a hamster princess cursed at birth to prick her finger on a hamster wheel and die, who instead treats the curse as a loophole to seek out danger. Confirmed a separate, unrelated universe from Ursula Vernon's own Dragonbreath (a different illustrated middle-grade series) and from her adult work published as T. Kingfisher.
Quick answers
- How many books are in Hamster Princess? Hamster Princess's Core Canon is 6 books.
- What is the reading order for Hamster Princess? Publication order, starting with Harriet the Invincible. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is Hamster Princess finished? Complete (2015–2018).
- How much reading does Hamster Princess take? Medium reading commitment (estimated from 6 Core Canon books).
- How is Hamster Princess ranked? #100 in this site's official ranking, based on 8,824 reader ratings across 6 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #100?
Ranked #100 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.23 across 6 core books.
- A smaller readership (8,824 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Less than 0.01 behind #99, Howl's Moving Castle (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Highly rated · 6 books · Complete · 9k ratings · Ranks #100 overall
Good choice if you want a moderate-length fairy-tale retelling fantasy universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
Publication order (6 Core Canon books)
- Harriet the Invincible (2015)
- Of Mice and Magic (2016)
- Ratpunzel (2016)
- Giant Trouble (2017)
- Little Red Rodent Hood (2018)
- Whiskerella (2018)
Documented internal/story order
- Harriet the Invincible (2015)
- Of Mice and Magic (2016)
- Ratpunzel (2016)
- Giant Trouble (2017)
- Whiskerella (2018)
- Little Red Rodent Hood (2018)
Awards (verified)
- No awards found for this universe.
You might also like
Suggestions computed from what Hamster Princess and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
- Where the Mountain Meets the Moon Mythic fantasy / Fairy-tale retelling · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.30
- Skulduggery Pleasant Urban fantasy / Comic fantasy · Complete · High commitment · 4.35
- Jim Button Portal fantasy / Comic fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 4.28
- Howl's Moving Castle Fairy-tale retelling / Comic fantasy · Complete · Low commitment · 4.21
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.23 across 8,824 ratings on 6 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: Hamster Princess (Ursula Vernon) accepted 2026-09-05
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
Last reviewed: 2026-09-05
Rule: All six completed volumes register as Core Canon; no further installments are planned.