I came across Lynley Dodd's range of books about the character Hairy Maclairy because we are part of Dolly Parton's Imagination library scheme where children under 5 living in the under priveliged areas of Rotherham are given a free book every month. We have had lots of lovely books under this scheme, and I feel a bit of a fraud as I can and do buy many books myself. However, we do get some I might not have picked. We have had a few about the little scraggy dog known as Hairy Maclary who lives at Donaldson's dairy, and they have proved popular with my two. I was in fact reading this very book to my son while waiting for a doctors appointment this week, and another little boy stopped to listen to, so I feel that he is a popular character.

In this story, Hairy Maclary goes for a walk along the street, and as he passes other houses, other dog friends such as Hercules Morse, Bottomley Potts, and Schnitzel Von Krumm join him. They are having a whale of a time, until they come across the neighbourhood tomcat, Scarface Claw. How will this pack of dog's react?

What is beautiful about this story is the fact that it is all written in rhyme, and somehow, this is done in a way which doesn't detract from the story in any way. Some authors manage this so well you barely notice the rhyme is there, and in some ways Lynley Dodd has managed this in the same league for me as Julia Donaldson. No dodgy words just to get the rhyme in, then the story not making sense.

This is quite a long book in terms of pages, because each double page spread has a lovely appealing illustration on the left hand page, with the text on a plain white background on the right hand side. There is sometimes quite a bit of text, but it will engage the attention of both my 3 and 5 year olds really well. As we go through the story, it is a bit like a memory game too, for we start off with just Hairy Maclary, but as we meet each new dog, we then recite a list of all the dogs who are on the walk with us, so I start reading the list, and the kids often recite it with me.

There is a bit of an old fashioned feel to me in this book. Rather than an imaginative story, this author takes an everyday situation such as dogs walking down the street and sniffing around to see what they can find. There is a bit of unusualness to it, but mostly it is quite predictable, and my two seem to like this. Not everything has to be new and exciting to have an appealing charm to toddlers as the whole world around them is enough to be exciting.

It is a puffin book, with a RRP of £5.99, which is worth it as it looks lovely, is good quality, and will be read over and over. I have to read it at least twice every time, more if the kids catch me with plenty of time. And we don't get bored with it.