Hairy Maclary and Friends is a series of children's picture books created by New Zealand author and illustrator Dame Lynley Dodd.
The text is written in rhythmic verse that flows easily with simple rhymes like "Bottomley Potts covered in spots, Hercules Morse as big as a horse".
"Schnitzel von Krumm with a very low tum, Bitzer Maloney all skinny and bony, Muffin McLay like a bundle of hay, Bottomley Potts covered in spots, Hercules Morse as big as a horse and Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy" Although the books are designed to entertain young children, they are not intended as "early readers", as are, for example, the "Cat in the Hat" books by Dr. Seuss which have a very basic and largely phonic vocabulary.
Hairy Maclary's home, for example, has a red corrugated iron roof supported on wooden brackets, and the garden has a frangipani tree, a picket fence and a row of agapanthi.
In the first book of the series the repeated lines "...and Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy" accompany a series of illustrations showing Hairy Maclary sniffing the bottom of a lamppost, burrowing into a hedge, barking at some birds, raiding a garbage can and hiding in grass with some sunflowers next to him.
In 2015, a sculpture of Hairy Maclary and other characters from the books was officially unveiled in Tauranga on the waterfront by former prime minister John Key.