What a treat this children’s book is. If you ever have watched and choked up on a YouTube video of a three or two legged pupper trying it’s best to play with other dogs – you’ll love this. So will your children, 6-12 years old (I’m guessing).

 

JaKe is a three-legged dog. New to living in the UK, he now calls the UK home. He wants to compete in the 100m dash at the Pawlympics at Wembley stadium. However, he has some impediments to overcome.

 

Between JaKe and his trainer – a bird called Charlie, we follow his journey to improve his time's for this event. We learn about overcoming barriers, bullying, acceptance, courage, dealing with setbacks, and with a little bit of maths thrown in for good measure. There’s also the important message of accepting others from foreign lands who want to be citizens and contribute to their new home country.

 

There are laughs too – particularly involving Charlie, who does something a bit disgusting  when he gets excited that would make most children (and anonymous childish adults) howl with laughter.

 

Delightful.

This story was so cute! I love dogs so this was the perfect mix of a cute dog and a heart warming story. An aspect I liked was the dog’s best friends wasn’t another dog, it was a bird. Even though the bird was small, he had enough confidence for the both of them. A best friend needs someone to pick them up when they are down, and the bird did just that. I also liked that the themes were put on the last page of the book making it easy for young kids to grasp the big picture. The simple pictures were also perfect!