Jack-Jack A Dog In Africa by Ben Garrod

Illustrated by Charli Vince; 112 pages; Published by Zephyr 11/04/24; For 7 years plus

I got bright warm and friendly vibes right from the start of this book. This book is aimed at seven years plus, our youngest turned six just a week before we received our copy from an X, formerly known as Twitter, competition. Both myself and daughter were super excited and very grateful.

A rare day in the UK, we actually had sunshine and it was half term so we were both able to enjoy reading outside. As a family we have dogs, so our daughter loved the very first page that features the image of Jack-Jack speaking.

As our six year old struggles with reading and this is aimed at slightly older children I read this book to her. Our daughter was giggling throughout and now it has been read five times. Our daughter has asked if we can get more books like this for the summer holidays. There are delightful pictures on every page.

I know our daughter will definitely want to read it for herself as she gets more confident. This is definitely a book to keep and we are now looking out for more by this author and the illustrator.

The book is just over 100 pages but it’s not daunting to read as the illustrations and page layouts are different throughout, which keeps the book engaging and exciting. 

Our daughter asked, “why aren’t they coloured? Did they forget?” I believe this is because we are just entering the book world for this age or slightly older which is the next step on from colourful reading books. 

Our daughter gave this book a 5-star rating. As a parent I very much enjoyed reading this to our daughter and loved that she really engaged with this story.