Shampooch, written by Heather Pindar and illustrated by Susan Batori, is the story about an extremely pampered pooch and how her fear of not joining in affects her.
Shampooch is very a pampered dog. She is all neat and pristine with silky fluffy fur and a diamante collar. When her humans take her to the park to play, she doesn’t want to join in with the other dogs as the fear of getting dirty is just too great. Shampooch is very aloof and doesn’t want to play with the other dogs. But they are having loads of fun playing in the smelly bins, rolling through mud and chasing rabbits but she manages to resist.
While strolling through the park in all her splendour, something catches her eye and just as she starts to look she is knocked down the hill and her day changes, but is it or better or worse?
Overall, we found this to be a great story that delivers a very gentle message of not judging others by their looks and how opening up to new experiences can be so much fun and rewarding.
It has been beautifully illustrated, showing Shampooch in all her coiffured glory and will appeal to boys, girls and dog lovers.
It is, for the most part, easy to read. There are some nonsense words in the form of the dogs names (Shampooch, Wagsy McBone, Woof-Whiffily and Sniffy Bottingham) which are great for children learning phonics as it means that younger children will have to put their phonics skills to work and sound out the words.
Now for the only negative within the book. While the 6 year old reading it loved it, when the letter I is used it does look like a lower case j, which can be very confusing for younger readers, I know I had to take a second look.
Shampooch is an amusing dog story that children will love to read. At 32 pages long, it is a perfect bedtime story.
Rating: 4.5/5
RRP: £7.99 (Paperback)
For more information, visit maverickbooks.co.uk. Available to buy from Amazon here.
