Lazy Jack - Hardcover

Vivian French~Russell Ayto

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0744526108 ISBN 13: 9780744526103

Publisher: Walker Books Ltd, 1995

Synopsis

The nursery tale of Lazy Jack who never opens his eyes from morning until night, and makes a terrible mess of bringing back his wages! First published in 1995. Retold, with colour illustrations by Russell Ayto.

About this title

From Booklist:

Ages 4^-8. "There was no one as lazy as Lazy Jack. He got out of bed in the afternoon and he yawned and he stretched and he ate and he drank and he burped. Then he went back to bed. . . ." French retells an old favorite with droll humor, simple repetition, and a wonderful rhythm for reading aloud. When Jack's mother manages to get him a job with a builder, Jack loses his wages on the way home, and she tells him he should have put the coin in his pocket. So at his next job, when the farmer pays him with a jug of milk, Jack pours the milk into his pockets to keep it safe. Each time he remembers what his mother told him and applies it in the wrong way. Ayto's slightly blurry watercolor-and-ink cartoons capture the silliness of the gentle farce. Some illustrations are like a comic strip, with several frames to a page; then there's a full-page picture for the climax of each catastrophe. Whether Jack is snoring in bed or awake and working, he always has his eyes tightly closed. Any child who's messed up with the best intentions will love the disaster tale and will relish Jack's sweet revenge. Hazel Rochman

From Publishers Weekly:

Traditionally, the tale of Lazy Jack includes a vituperative mother who calls Jack "stupid" and similar endearments each time he squanders his wages. But this comic retelling is sympathetic to both Jack and his mom, here comfortably rotund and clad in apron and fuzzy pink slippers. When Jack loses the coin he has earned working for a builder, his mother says mildly, "Oh, Jack.... You are a silly boy. You should have put it in your pocket." The next day, after working for a farmer, he obediently pours his earnings?a jug of milk?into his pocket. Each subsequent workday yields increasingly ludicrous mishaps. French (Caterpillar Caterpillar) nicely tweaks the traditional ending to show redemption on Jack's part without losing the comedic tone. The characters, rendered in muted watercolors and ink and shown both full-scale and in panels, are squat and bulbous-nosed, reminiscent of the figures in Andy Capp.With such good humor permeating both text and art, this tale suddenly seems worth retelling. Ages 4-up.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Walker Books Ltd
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0744526108
• ISBN 13: 9780744526103
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32