Lazy Daisy, Busy Lizzie, by Mary Ellen Jordan & Andrew Weldon

One by one, in rhyme, the reader is introduced to the animal occupants of a farm. But few of these animals behave quite as might be expected.

This is my cow,

she’s called Daisy.

She should eat grass,

but she’s too lazy.

 

One by one, in rhyme, the reader is introduced to the animal occupants of a farm. But few of these animals behave quite as might be expected. There’s the lazy cow, who’d rather be spoon fed jelly; the hen who prefers dancing to laying eggs. Alternate double-page spreads introduce the animals and what they ‘should’ be doing, with following spreads detailing their preferred activities. But despite their un-farmlike activities, there is something they all do well, and the narrator suggests that on balance their combined life is a good one. Illustrations are pen and watercolour, in cartoon-style. Front endpapers show the farm in daytime, end endpapers show the farm at night.

 

From the outset and from the title, it’s clear that Lazy Daisy, Busy Lizzie is a book about playing with language, playing with sounds, and encouraging the reader to do the same. The illustrations include many other details and reader and child will easily be able to conjure up names, words and activities for further occupants of this farm. Readers will engage with the language, be tickled by the illustrations and come away with a sense of just how much fun it can be to play with words. And all this wrapped in delightful package of silliness. Win-win. Recommended for pre-school and early school readers.

Lazy Daisy, Busy Lizzie

Lazy Daisy, Busy Lizzie, Mary Ellen Jordan Andrew Weldon Allen & Unwin 2011 ISBN: 9781742374291

 

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com

This book can be purchased online from Fishpond.