Hairy Maclary Scattercat

Hairy Maclary (he of Donaldson's dairy) is feeling frisky and bouncy, and just has to chase every cat in town; but he gets his comeuppance in the end, at the paws of (who else?) Scarface Claw!

This was yet another book we had to read five times in one sitting. My three year old and I were in the library, and I picked this up to read, as we have the first book in the series - [Hairy Maclary of Donaldson's Dairy] - which we both like.

The books are short stories told in verse, with about four lines to a page, accompanied by a facing page appropriately illustrated. The illustrations are humourous and quite detailed without being overly complicated (I like the way we see Hairy peering at the cats from cover, and the fact that the cover show more illustration is different from the pictures in the book); each page has a separate character (in this case, cats); and the verses and the story are straightforward, lively and easy to follow. show less

Lynley Dodd’s Hairy Maclary in “Scattercat”. While on the surface this is the story of a dog’s day out chasing cats before he gets his comeuppance I felt the need to look below the surface and see it as a tale about modern history. Imagine that Hairy Macleary is Nazi Germany with each cat being the territories they invaded before being defeated by the Allies. A good children’s book with a great choice of words.

this book was a good book to use when discussing feelings. It tells about a dog always chasing cats and finally a cat chases him back and he did not like it. i gave this book 5 stars for its illustrations. They were really great and told the story almost as well as the pictures. I remember when a friend was bullied and she finally stood up for herself and the bully didn't like it. That, to me, is what this book represents. Not only could this book be used for talking about feelings, but pets. Many children have pets and if a pet has escaped or ran away you could use this story to come up with ideas about why their pet ran away.

It is an awesome book! Good for anyone.