Pigsticks and Harold and the Incredible Journey — Alex Milway

In a wry new early reader, the world's most optimistic pig and his nervous hamster sidekick set out on an exploration to find the Ends of the Earth.

Pigsticks is the last in a noble line of explorers, and he's decided it's time for him to follow in his forepigs' footsteps -- with an assistant to do the heavy lifting, of course. When his help-wanted ad draws a motley crew of candidates, he chooses a hapless delivery hamster named Harold. As the unlikely duo set off from Tuptown with plenty of tea cakes in tow, Pigsticks is breathless with excitement (and Harold is struggling for breath under all the gear). But after a long trek through jungles, over deserts, and up a giant ice-topped mountain, the last crumb of cake is stolen by a herd of thieving goats, and their goal is nowhere in sight. Will they ever discover the Ends of the Earth? Could it be in the last place they'd ever think to look?