thumb|Sculpture of Hairy Maclary and other characters on the waterfront of [[Tauranga, New Zealand|Tauranga]]
Hairy Maclary and Friends is a series of children's picture books created by New Zealand author and illustrator Dame Lynley Dodd. The popular series has sold over five million copies worldwide.
The character Hairy Maclary made his first appearance in 1983 in the book titled Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy.<!--Do not change this trivia according to the website-->
According to the books' website, Hairy Maclary is "a small dog of mixed pedigree". Dodd has described him as a mix of terriers that she knows, their actions tell the stories, and reflect their animal natures.
Each double-sided page has an illustration on one side and text on the other. The pictures and the written words together tell the story, and the illustrations and their meanings are as important as the text. Dodd stated that "in a picture book it is very important that text and picture should fit together perfectly; in mood, style and sympathy—a partnership in which each enhances the other." The books have a wide format that enables a child seated beside an adult to have a full view of the picture page while the adult reads.
The text is written in rhythmic verse with simple rhymes like "Bottomley Potts covered in spots, Hercules Morse as big as a horse". Characters, events and language are repetitive and cumulative, in the manner of "Old MacDonald had a farm". Each book contains a twist or some sort of conclusion at the end. In the 2019 TVNZ series Goodnight Kiwi, prime minister Jacinda Ardern read Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy; the episode aired on TVNZ 2 on Christmas Day.
Foreign language editions of the Hairy Maclary books have been published in Sweden, Japan, Slovenia, Russia, Korea and China.