"This book was a huge hit with my class of five year olds.  It has the key ingredients for success – lovely big illustrations, lots of language play, and lots and lots of dogs!

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A breed of dog is introduced for each letter – from Affenpinscher to Zuchon – with a “ditty” to describe the traits of the dog. The ditties come in a variety of styles, from limericks to rhyming couplets, and a variety of rhyme schemes. The variations add interest, and are make the book perfect for dipping into to read a few poems here and there.

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The illustrations are good humoured and fun, and Lawford captures the “personalities” of the dogs van Dam is describing beautifully.  My class were excited when they could identify with the letters, giving lots of other examples of words that start with “n”, for example. They were laughing out loud at some of the scrapes the dogs got into (using the word nude is always going to send five year olds into fits of giggles, let’s be honest!), and we all learned about breeds of dog that were new to us.

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When my daughter was still of an age to want bed time stories, we used to have an agreement of one story and three poems. This is the sort of book that would have been great for our bed time routine; there is a lot of variety in the poems, and they’re all quite short, which keeps the rhyming schemes fresh and snappy.

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I enthusiastically recommend this book for pre-schoolers to about seven year olds. It’s a lovely book to read to aloud, and while some of the names of breeds are tongue-twisters – such as Xoloitzcuintil! – independent readers will enjoy practising their rhyming skills while reading to themselves."

- Reviewed by Rachel Moore - Booksellers New Zealand

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"Children of all ages will love listening to Doggie ditties and older kids will be playfully challenged and educated as they begin to read it for themselves. Doggie ditties, to paraphrase the book itself, is more than ‘rather witty’ but really very clever. Author Jo van Dam weaves humour and rhyme into a charming book of alphabet poems.

Each letter introduces a dog and it really is complete from A to Z!. There are much loved and familiar dogs such as the Labrador and Poodle, but also some unusual and often tricky names such as the Affenpinscher and the Xoloitzcuintli (van Dam helpfully includes the pronunciation for that one).

Using a variety of poetic styles such as haiku, rhyming couplets and limericks the reader (or listener) is introduced to each unique doggie character by name and their very funny personalities such as Murray the Husky who loved hot curry, or Priscilla the Poodle and her boyfriend Lance from France.

Children love to hear this book read to them over and over again; laughing all the way while finding their favourite dogs, learning delightful facts and interesting words.
Illustrator Myles Lawford brings van Dams dogs and their unique identities to life with his emotive puppy faces and colourful, vibrant scenes.

- Reviewed by Abigail - Good Reads

‘Once upon a time, in the deep blue and dark blue sea, lived a tiny shiny snapper, and her sisters thirty-three.’

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"Quinn stopped me at this point, asking ‘has she got thirty-three sisters, Grandma’ – I had to explain that snappers lay a lot of eggs and, yes, they were all her sisters. Only having one sister, Quinn thought about that for a minute and said – “I don’t think I’d like to have thirty-three sisters”.  I  think she is right, one sister is plenty.

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The tiny snappers had all been nagged by their mother to ‘stay hidden in the weed, as whales and people fishing reckon you’re a tasty feed.’  Generally, they obeyed her but of course being young they were curious and ventured beyond where they should go.

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Of course, a good story has to have a villain and in this case, it was a whale. The tiny snapper appealed to the whale to not eat him up but to let him go. If he did, he would sometime in the future repay the kindness. So, the villain turns out to be a good guy and let the snapper go. The snapper never forgot that kindness and was able to return the favour.

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The moral of the story is if you do a good deed you will be repaid sometime in the future – well you hope so!

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After reading each page I stopped and asked Quinn what she could see in the illustrations. The language alongside each one just made me laugh with the amount of Kiwi slang – ‘sweet as! Fresh kai for me,’ being just one example.  A truly delightful book."

- Reviewed by Christine Frayling - Booksellers New Zealand

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"This excellent Kiwi take on the classic Lion and the Mouse tale is bound to be a winner.

Richard Holt's double spread full colour illustrations are vibrant and expressive, bringing to life this latest addition to the popular Kiwi Corkers series. Jo Van Dam's use of Kiwi slang expressions and faultless rhythm and rhyme combine to make this a very NZ tale that youngsters will love.

There are multiple lesson to be learnt from it:

• We don't need to be greedy and eat just because food is available

• We don't need to bully just because we are big

• We don't need to be fearful because we are small

• Each one of us has talents that can be used to help others

• Remember to be grateful and say 'thank you'

• Learn from your elders!

Threatened, the tiny snapper shouts to the whale, “Mate, don't eat us! We're not a yummy dish.” and promised “If you spare us, bro, I'll help you out one day.
Your kindness here I won't forget – one day I will repay.”

While this seems incredibly unlikely, the whale is impressed by her spunk and leaves the school of young snapper alone.

When next they meet snapper realises that this is payback time and successfully saves the whale who returns to thank her:
“Thanks heaps, little snapper. Good on ya mate!” he said.
“I could've kicked the bucket. Without you I'd be dead!”
- Reviewed by Chris Wright - Goodreads

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