Lazy Little Loafers - Hardcover

Orlean, Susan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0810970279 ISBN 13: 9780810970274

Publisher: Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2008

Synopsis

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Orchid Thief comes a smart, hilarious take on what babies contribute€”or don€™t€”to the world.   Ever experienced stroller envy? Ever wished you were applauded just for walking across a room? Ever wanted to loaf about the park on a blanket in the middle of a school day with nothing on your agenda but being relaxed and happy? Then you should be a baby. They€™ve got it made.   In this charming, droll story, a world-weary older sister ponders the question, why don€™t more babies work? Her answers, hilariously tinged with resentment, offer up a wickedly accurate picture of just how great babies

About this title

About the Author

Susan Orlean is a longtime staff writer for the New Yorker and the author of several books, including The Orchid Thief, which was the inspiration for the movie Adaptation. She’s currently working on a book about the canine hero Rin Tin Tin. She divides her time between upstate New York and Southern California. G. Brian Karas has written and illustrated several award-winning children’s books, including On Earth and Home on the Bayou: A Cowboy’s Story, a Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor Book. He also illustrated Are You Going to Be Good?, a New York Times Best Illustrated Book. He lives in Milan, New York.

Reviews

Grade 1–3—A child speculates on the role of babies in the world. She gets right to the point on page one as she asks, "Why don't…babies work?" The rest of the story involves her research conducted on her baby brother, as well as on the babies she meets on her travels. She finds them to be lazy little loafers who enjoy snacking and lying around. All the while, kids her age are struggling to make their beds, study for tests, and solve math problems. How do the babies get away with it? As the youngster heads off to school, leaving her little brother and mom in the park, she decides that the reason is obvious. Orlean's reserved wit will be best appreciated by observant, inquisitive kids who harbor the slightest bit of cynicism in their little souls. Karas's gouache and acrylic cartoons reinforce the notion that babies are not silly and cute, but rather happy and lazy. This is a good one-on-one read for any youngster who has wondered why the baby doesn't have to go to school.—Lisa Glasscock, Columbine Public Library, Littleton, CO
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Babies are a shiftless, indolent lot, at least according to our young narrator, a Manhattan schoolgirl with a bone to pick. As she walks to school one September morning, accompanied by her mother and stroller-bound baby brother (whom she refuses to acknowledge), she regales the reader with a litany of baby crimes. Babies are lazy. Babies are snobby. Babies think they’re sooo cute. Beneath the protestations, readers will recognize and empathize with a sister struggling for attention. The irresistibly ironic tirade is effectively reflected in Karas’ jaunty collage illustrations. A foundation of photographic cityscapes establishes a sophisticated setting and a perfect foil to his cartoonlike sketches. There is no nod to buried affection in the final pages. Instead, we get an honest, complex attitude, equal parts outrage and insecurity, subtly captured in pictures both silly and incisive. Such a real expression of a singular childhood emotion, free from any didactic hammering, is a welcome arrival that kids will enjoy again and again. Grades K-2. --Thom Barthelmess

Edition details

• Publisher: Abrams Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0810970279
• ISBN 13: 9780810970274
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Karas G. Brian
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32