The White Guinea Pig

The White Guinea Pig

by Ursula Dubosarksy
published 1994
Ligature untapped
genre Young Adult

There’s a lot going on in eleven-year-old Geraldine’s life. There’s her older sister who always knows everything before she does. There’s her parents, selling the family house because her father’s lost all their money. There’s her neighbour, who disapproves of her two guinea pigs. And then there’s Albertine, the spoilt white guinea pig who’s used to sleeping in human beds that Geraldine was guilted into babysitting by Alma. Alma promised that Albertine wouldn’t be any trouble—boy, was she wrong. Not that it was Albertine’s fault exactly, she wasn’t the one who left the cage door open and she couldn’t have known what would happen. She just was a guinea pig. 

‘It’s a wonderful piece of writing that improves on every reading.’ — The Age

‘A sad tale? Actually not. You’ll be moved by the sudden, warm ending; with its lightness and wit, this is a comedy of some depth.’ — The Observer, UK

First published in 1994, The White Guinea Pig won a NSW Premier’s Literary Award, a Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, and was shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award. 

Ursula Dubosarsky is the 2020–2021 Australian Children’s Laureate and the author of nearly 60 books, many of which have won or been shortlisted for awards. Several of her books include guinea pigs. For more information visit her website ursuladubosarsky.squarespace.com.