I smiled to see Hot Rod Hamster on a teacher's list of Edgy Picture Books For Emerging Readers. 

I wrote phonics stories before Rules was published, and I love books that pull a young child along from listener to reader. I've met preschoolers who can "read" to me every one of the speech bubbles in Hot Rod Hamster.  Sometimes the child is truly decoding the words, but most times, they've memorized them.  But that's how reading first starts for many kids--with some confidence in memorized...