Jack-Jack: A Dog with a Job – at a glance
The School Reading Lists’ five word review: Dog’s Voice, learning, adoption, experience, understanding.
Children’s book title: A Dog with a Job.
Children’s author: Ben Garrod.
Children’s illustrator: Charli Vince.
Genre: Children’s fiction.
Published by: Zephyr .
ISBN: 9781035906857.
Recommended for children aged: 7+.
First published: Paperback September 2025.
This children’s book is ideal for: seeing things through another’s eyes and looking at how others see us. This is a feel-good, humorous read which could be read independently by confident readers of a younger age.
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Our review:
Jack-Jack knows what he’s good at and is quite content to spend his life honing his strengths. Snacks, snuggles, and meeting up with his canine and human friends are all things he’s happy to spend his day perfecting, but unfortunately, his owner, Ben, has been mentioning jobs lately and Jack-Jack is about to find out why!
He’s not sure why Ben thought he’d be a good police dog, but he really did try! Somehow, everything got all mixed up and tangled, which meant police work was soon off the table! Search and rescue should have been a doddle, after all, he has an amazing nose and can recognise all sorts of smells his human doesn’t even know exist, but things got a bit complicated and confusing again, so no mountains for him! And then there were the sheep! Let’s just say he absolutely wasn’t cut out for all that coming and going, herding and halting, and leave it at that! Eventually, things get sorted out and both Ben and Jack-Jack are quite pleased with the outcome!
Our verdict:
Book four in Ben Garrod’s fun series about his African rescue dog is once again a thoughtful, heartwarming and funny read. Jack-Jack was born in Africa, where he met Ben, who adopted him and brought him back to the UK, which was all kinds of different. The various jobs Ben sets up for him aren’t supposed to be fraught with problems, but they all turn out that way. Gradually, he begins to look closely at himself and when an orphaned chick adopts him, it’s clear he’s a natural at the nurturing side of things.
Finally, both Ben and Jack-Jack can relax, enjoying their life together without putting any extra pressure on either of them. Written in a simple conversational style, there are laugh-out-loud moments as well as times when you want to help Jack-Jack find his way to do things to make his owner proud while not annoying the dogs who are all very good at the jobs they are trying to teach him.
Teaching points and book club discussion ideas:
- Dogs can be trained to help their humans in all kinds of different ways, as well as being loyal pets. How many things can you think of that dogs are specially trained for?
- In a cross-curricular activity with art, design a poster which will advertise something special that a dog and their owner can take part in.
- Jack-Jack had helped look after chimps at an animal sanctuary in Africa, so his success with the small chick shouldn’t really be a surprise. What other jobs could he do that other animals couldn’t?
- Jack-Jack looks at himself as he tries to decide what his owner wants him to do. What does he realise as he works out what he should try next?
- Are there things you are much better at than others? What are your special talents? Are your friends and family good at the same or different things?
- How would you describe your special talents if you were trying to explain them to someone who doesn’t know you?
Many thanks to Zephyr for the review copy.
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