Lazy Cat takes a wonderful look at friendship and the fact that friendship is reciprocal and involves giving as well as receiving. Doodle Dog is a very good friend to Lazy Cat who takes full advantage of Doodle’s good nature. Then one day he pushes Doodle just a little bit too far…
The Story: Doodle Dog tries to be a good friend to Lazy Cat but he treats Doodle like his own personal servant. One day, after trying to help with the television aerial, Doodle has had enough so Lazy Cat tries to put things right. His attempts to be kind to Doodle lead to a game of Hide and Seek which doesn’t last long for Lazy Cat who falls asleep. But then Doodle finds that a Lazy Cat can be very useful…
This is an amusing way of looking at how a friendship works and we have total sympathy for Doodle Dog who, although happy to share and help his friend, doesn’t always get the best deal out of the relationship. Pizza ‘sharing’ and toy ‘sharing’ aren’t done particularly fairly and Lazy Cat is far too lazy to tidy up after himself and even lazier to walk to his food bowl!
Much of the humour in the story comes from Julia Woolf’s illustrations which beautifully convey the imbalance in the relationship between the two friends. Just looking at the cover you see how selfish Lazy Cat can be and it’s the same when the two friends play. But the most humour comes from the old fashioned television, complete with aerial, which causes their big problem. I had to explain to my daughter how televisions and aerials used to work when I was a child – she’s never seen one before!
This is a wonderful story to use in the classroom when discussing the theme of friendship. Friendships can often cause conflicts in classrooms and while the subject is dealt with humorously in the story, it can be used to stimulate discussion and give children the opportunity to talk about their own friendships and the emotions that accompany them.
Age Range: 3 +
Author / Illustrator: Julia Woolf
Thank you to Templar Books for sending us a copy of this amusing picture book. We would love to see these two characters in another story!
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