Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy Paperback – Picture Book, June 2, 2001

This children's book is an utter delight and I'm beyond confused that it isn't a huge sensation in American like it apparently is in the rest of the world where Hairy Maclary is as identifiable (and marketable!) as The Very Hungry Caterpillar or Madeline.This is the first book in a series of children's books about animals. The illustrations are delightful and fun; the story is told in a rollicking bouncy rhythmic poetry form. My favorite part though is that the animals aren't anthropomorphic at all. They are dogs that act like dogs and think doggy thoughts. My 15 month old son loves the rhythm of the words and will say "woof woof" as he looks at the pictures of the dogs. The basic story is pretty simple, which makes it great for young toddlers, but that doesn't mean it dumbs things down. This book uses a large vocabulary, which is great to help expose kids to more "rare words" (a technical term, meaning words aht aren't amongst the 10,000 most commonly used words). This in turn really helps their language development and, down the road, their reading abilities.

Classic New Zealand kids book for a great price. Purchased for multiple gifts and has been a big hit!

The Hairy McClairy series is so much fun , rhyming read along for the littles. I’ve been gifting these books for over 30 yrs now and they never get old.

This book is adorable and I highly recommend it. I read it to my children 30-40 years ago. I was glad to see it was still available to purchase. I still have my oriiginal copy .This one is a hardcover board book which is even better for the child I am giving it to.

Lynley Dodd's wonderful Hairy Maclary series have built on the adventures of this scruffy, mischievous dog and his rapscallion friends. Ms Dodd doesn't shy away from using complex words, despite her very young readership, and engages the reader through the use of rhyme and rhythm. You feel the pace of the rag-tag bunch as they roam the streets getting up to mischief, and the pace builds all the way to the crescendo of scattering paws. It was a favourite of my children's when they were young, and continues to be a favourite as I buy it for small children we know!

This was my kids favorite book, the rhyming text is fun to read and fun to listen to, now I've bought it for the grandkids. I really can't believe these books aren't available more readily! Every new Mom and family I gift one of these two is searching for more and in the US, they just aren't in print so you have to come to Amazon for your rhyming doggie adventures.

I read this to my toddler nearly 40 years ago, and I still gift it to families with babies and preschoolers. Such a fun book to read aloud!

Very cute story!