A Story Book Classic - Hairy Maclary

The Hairy Maclary series by Lynley Dodd is a series of books that we have read, re-read and will read over and over again. If you haven't met Hairy Maclary and his friends yet you are truly missing out. Full of mischief and adorable characters these stories are wonderful for little readers.

All of the stories in the series are written in a wonderful rhyme which truly bounces along, like most of the characters in the book. Hairy Maclary is a wire-haired scrappy little chap who has a whole cast of doggy pals all of whom have the most wonderfully-imaginative names. Personally I love Schnitzel von Krumm with the very low tum, and Zackary Quack the duck.

In the original tale, Hairy Maclary and all his friends (and, yes, I can repeat the list off by heart and have been able to since BookBairn was just a bump!) walk along the street into town encountering one of the most villainous characters in children's literature: Scarface Claw the toughest tom cat in town. *Warning: we had to stop reading this book for a few months as BookBairn used to cry at the sight of Scarface Claw.* And then, understandably they all race home. This is a great story for little ones and will trip up a tired parent with the rhyming names if you try to race through the last pages of the story alongside the characters, making everyone giggle. I especially love Daddy Bookbairn's attempts to get around the list of names at full speed!

As brilliant as this book is, BookBairn generally chooses to read 'Hairy Maclary and Zackary Quack' more often (it is never far from her favourites shelf!). This is a delightful tale of hide-and-seek between Hairy Maclary and the cutest little duck! She loves to flip through and compare the first page with the last and pointing out the very small difference. I don't want to spoil the ending but it is very cute!

We also have two other versions of Hairy Maclary books that I would highly recommend for fans of this cheeky pooch! The Little Library box of Hairy Maclary books is one of BookBairn's favourite things to play with at the moment. She loves taking the books out of the box and putting them back in! But when she was younger, these books were just the right size for her little fingers to hold and play with. We also picked up a lift-the-flap 'Where's Hairy Maclary' book at the Edinburgh Book Festival last year (I think, actually it was G'ma BookBairn who bought it). This is a great book for any Hairy Maclary fans who want more of his stories!
There are many more Hairy Maclary (and friends) books available to and we often borrow these from the library as BookBairn is beginning to recognise the characters despite them being in different stories.

These stories are simply great fun and would make a great addition to any little bookbairn's collection!