My daughters and I first came across a small dog called Hairy Maclary when reading the book 'Hairy Maclary at Donaldson's Dairy' a while ago. He is a character created by Lynley Dodd and he features in a number of delightful picture books aimed at small children. Although all the books feature the same main character, they do all seem to be stand alone books. However my daughters do seem quite determined to read the full set. The latest book we have read is 'Hairy Maclary's Rumpus at the Vets'.

As the title implies, Hairy Maclary finds himself at the vets one day with one leg and paw heavily bandaged. Lots of other animals are there too, waiting with their owners to have their ailments seen too. One such creature is Cassie the cockatoo who must have been feeling a little bored waiting in her cage because she something furry that is twitching so she gives it a tweak! That one tweak (which happens to be on Hairy Maclary's tail) leads to a catastrophic chain of events - hence the title 'Rumpus at the Vets'.

When Cassie tweaks Hairy's tail, he jumps high in the air and knocks over a bowl of mice. The mice run into a lady holding a budgies' cage that fly out when the bottom drops off! The flapping birds cause a cat called Grizzly MacDuff to leap out of his basket and so it goes on. Soon there are animals everywhere and there is absolute mayhem. The final thing that happens is when Geezer the goat thunders into Cassie (remember her?) the cockatoo's cage. This makes her mad but as she rattles her cage, she sees something twitch so she reaches out to give it a tweak..... Can you guess what it is? Yes, it's Hairy Maclary's tail and although this is where the story ends you can imagine what continues to happen at the vets!

As you can see, this story is a lot of fun and has both my daughters in giggles. Also the story is written in rhyme with some very descriptive language that all adds to the overall effect of the story. We all love the rhyme in this story and the way it is put together and paced is very clever. This is an example from the beginning of the story:

Down at the Vet's
There were all kinds of pets,
With troubles and woes
From their ears to their toes.
Sniffles and snuffles
And doses of flu,
Itches and stitches
And tummy aches too.

There is lots of lovely language and alliterative phrases fro children to enjoy getting their tongues around. It is a really enjoyable read. There are also some wonderful illustrations that make you want to linger on every page. Also these really help to add to the telling of the story and there is a lot of humour in all of the pictures.

Overall, this is a great book to share with small children. It is likely to appeal to both boys and girls and has a great main character with a very cheeky appearance. Both my daughters and I thoroughly recommend this story, along with all the other Hairy Maclary adventures too!