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 who often treats Doodle like his own personal servant. One day, after trying to help Lazy Cat 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 how televisions and aerials used to work when I was a child!!
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 to 6
Author / Illustrator: Julia Woolf
Thank you to Templar Books for sending us a copy of Lazy Cat. We would love to see the Doodle Dog / Lazy Cat partnership in another story!
Hi Catherine, the etiquette of friendship can be a bit confusing, and this book sounds a perfect way of exploring relationships in a fun and relaxed way. Children learn so much when something is approached in a fun way.
Thank you for linking up with the #MMBC.
xx
Children can learn a lot through a fun story and hopefully Lazy Cat shows them how not to treat their friends!
This looks like a great representation of how friendship should work, thanks for sharing with #readwithme
It’s a very humorous representation of friendship. We#d love to see Lazy Cat and Doodle Dog in another story 🙂
Thanks Catherine. I’d love to do another book with Lazy Cat and Doodle Dog. Keeping my fingers crossed that it happens X
That would be fab Julia!!
This looks like a great book. It’s too young for my girls but I have nieces and nephews who would like it 🙂
I’m sure they would. It has a very amusing ending 🙂
Ahh, this looks lovely! The illustrations look great. My daughter is obsessed with dogs and cats so I’m sure she would love this #MMBC
Lazy Cat sounds perfect for her!!
I was just thinking you could tell how one-sided the relationship is from the cover when I read you saying the exact same thing! This sounds like a good way of teaching children to treat their friends and siblings as equals and as they would like to be treated themselves!
It’s a very amusing way of showing how a friendship should work.
What a great book! Sounds brilliant! #readwithme
It’s fun and I think that BookBairn would enjoy it too 🙂
This sounds a great book to get across how friendships work.
Great review.
#readwithme
Thanks Suz. It was a fun review to write 🙂
Sounds like a great book, I’ll look out for it #triedtested
It is a fun story 🙂
This sounds like a great book to help children navigate the tricky world of making friends. The illustrations look brilliant too, really funny 🙂 #readwithme
The illustrations really add to the humour and as much of the story is told through the pictures as in the text.
Oh I do love a good learning point in a book – the balance of friendship is definitely an important lesson to learn!
Thanks for linking up with #TriedTested this week x
Learning to be a good friend is a very important lesson for little ones to learn and it’s great that the story shows children how in a fun way 🙂
This sounds like a lovely book & I really like the illustrations. I think anything that communicates the importance of being friendships and how to be a good one, is tackling a big subject, but is so worth while.
Popping across from #MMBC
The illustrations are fantastic and really add to the humour in the story 🙂
It looks like a fun book and it’s always good to read about how friendships work.
Plus it’s got a lazy cat in it, and we have a lazy cat too!
#MMBC
I wonder if your cat is really as lazy as this one!! He is very endearing despite his laziness 🙂