docs: def loads(s, as_dict=False, *args, **kwargs):
      """ Loads dynamodb json format to a python dict.
          :param s - the json string or dict (with the as_dict variable set to True) to convert
          :returns python dict object
      """
      if as_dict or (not isinstance(s, six.string_types)):
          s = json.dumps(s)
      kwargs['object_hook'] = object_hook
      return json.loads(s, *args, **kwargs)