Max the Flying Sausage Dog: A Tail From London by John O’Driscoll & Richard Kelley

Illustrated by: Arthur Robins

Series: Max the Flying Sausage Dog (Volume 1)

Published: Words In The Works LLC, 2014

Edition: Paperback

Print Length: 50 pages

Narrated By: N/A

Genre: Children’s Fiction, Picture Book

Where Did I Get It? I kindly received a copy from the publisher in return for this review.

Blurb: The bullies made fun of Max because he was so low to the ground. But just wait and see…

Opening Line(s):

Tom thinks this is the best day ever. It’s his birthday and he has finally turned seven.

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My Review: Tori and Arthur love this book! One of Arthur’s best friends at school is called Max so it is one of the few words he can recognise – as soon as he spotted it we had to sit down and read.

The story follows Tom as he chooses himself a dog from a dog pound for his birthday and takes him home. Max, the lucky dog, is a dachshund with the interesting trait of a tail that spins rather than wagging. Tom doesn’t think much of this until Max spins his tail so hard he takes off!

Having a flying dog is pretty cool but Tom has to do his best to keep it a secret in case someone tries to take Max away. It doesn’t half shut the bullies up when they try to laugh at how low to the ground Max is though!

When Tom notices a burglar breaking in to his neighbour’s house he discovers having a flying dog can be very useful (and also very funny) and saves the day – to actual cheers from my kids when we read it together.

Tori, who is five and a half, can just about read this by herself with a little help although it’s a bit long to read alone in one sitting. She often picks it up though and has a go.

The illustrations are as brilliant as Arthur Robins usually is – his familiar style adding to the story and making the kids giggle at every page.

Our copy has an English-to-American guide in the front which explains a few of the words and phrases that haven’t crossed The Pond and here came one of the only things we’d contest – it says that Bangers and Beans is a favourite English meal. We uphold that this should be Bangers and Mash rather than beans, but really this didn’t matter in regards to the story – just prompted a discussion in our household!

The one thing that did jar a little when we read it, and needed explaining to our English kids too, was the use of ‘Rozzers’ when talking about the Police. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anybody actually call the Police ‘the Rozzers’ in real life aside from on the TV and that’s never on modern-based shows – I thought it had fallen out of use. Apparently not!

We did love that Max was based on a real dog and Arthur is totally convinced that real Max could fly, too. As nothing in the description of real Max denies this, maybe he could!

My Rating: 4/5*

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