Dogs Don't Climb Trees

This book is another from the fantastic Lynley Dodd series - though I do prefer her cat characters; in it, Schnitzel von Krum, the sausage dog, gets stuck trying to climb a tree. That's it. Excellent ring-rhyming text and full-bodied illustrations too, as ever.

Slinky Malinki: Open the Door

This book, by Lynley Dodd, is part of the fantastic Hairy McLary & Friends series which I loved as a child and this ridiculous mad cat Slinky was always my favourite of their whole ensemble. The pictures are full, loud, exciting - and the rhyming-couplet text tells in pitch-perfect detail the short-lived escapades of a housecat and parakeet hellbent on all kinds of domestic destruction while their owner is out and about. A great one for kids.

Slinky Malinki: Catflaps

This book by Lynley Dodd takes pains to deeply explore the sociological complexities of a neighbourhood's-worth of cats when they congregate nocturnally to sit on fences & make noises. I can't say from experience how reliable this image is, as though having had a pet cat in the past I don't ever remember it sneaking out in the small hours to meet other cats and sit in prominent places to mewl, screech and whine until people threw shoes at them, but maybe that's just me. In any case - as with all of Dodd's oeuvre, this is a top-notch kids' book with lively characterful illustrations and rhyming-couplet text that rolls off the brain so well that I basically was able to recite it upon rereading despite it being a good two decades or so since I've read this one. Worth a punt as a children-gift.

Scarface Claw

This book by Lynley Dodd hits all the right notes one would expect from a children's book about an unfriendly cat. He prowls around, hisses, scratches, intimidates dogs and a few other cats, then gets terrified at the end, which is always fun. Spoiler alert I suppose? As with the whole series by this author/illustrator a great go-to for young readers.