Lazy Jack

by Tony Ross

A lazy, dim-witted boy who can never do anything right makes a sad princess laugh, thereby winning her hand

Genres: Picture Books

28 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1986

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Tony Ross is a British illustrator and author of children's picture books. He was a student at the Liverpool School of Art and Design. Ross has had quite a few occupations, such as cartoonist, graphic designer, art director at an advertising agency, senior lecturer in art and head of the illustration course at Manchester Polytechnic.
Ross won the 1986 Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis, picture books category, for Ich komm dich holen!, (I'm coming to get you! - Andersen, 1984. He was runner-up for the 1990 Kate Greenaway Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject, for Dr. Xargle's book of Earth Tiggers.

Meet the illustrator
What is your favourite animal?
A cat
What is your favourite boy’s name?
Bill
What is your favourite girl’s name?
Roxanne
What is your favourite food?
Lobster
What is your favourite music?
Irish
What is your favourite hobby?
Sailing

Reviews

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

My children loved this book and twenty years later it has proved the perfect tonic for their 90 year old grandmother. After three weeks in hospital, anything that makes her laugh deserves five stars.

[Zara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lazy Jack is a very interesting and fun read-aloud story, which provides many opportunities for the children to engage and participate with the story. The story also had detailed illustrations that were bright and colourful, this captured the children’s attention. Lazy Jack is also a humorous book, which reflects child-like wit and humour, therefore allowing the children to thoroughly appreciate this story. Lazy Jack also included dialogue, which allowed the reader to understand the characters and their personalities in greater depth. This also provided me with the opportunity to include and involve the class during the read aloud, as some students could read out the characters’ dialogue, thus creating a more active reading process.

Lazy Jack was the perfect choice for a read-aloud, as it allowed the children to immerse themselves into the story, and relate to the main character Jack’s emotions and feelings of annoyance and confusion. The story was also quite simple, and did not include too many complex characters, which made the story easier to understand, thus reinforcing why it was an effective story to read aloud in a year 1 class.

[Joanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A silly story about how poor Jack keeps following his mother’s instructions but it always goes poorly for him. Kiddos will giggle as pours milk in his pocket, drags a cake by a string, and puts cheese on his head. The marriage to the princess bit at the end seems wholly unnecessary for me because the real fun is each instance of Jack inadvertently goofing up.

[Luna Leda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lady. And no more words.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple and effective story teaching children the importance of word choice. Good book for years 1 and 2 in my opinion.

[TwoDrinks · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't decide whether this book is good or bad. Lazy Jack is a lazy and hapless young man (funny = good) but he succeeds despite his laziness (annoying = bad). The illustrations are quite funny.

[Barbara Lovejoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another book for my collection of ancestry folktales. Love this one! The illustrations are delightful.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mio prefe per le classi

Titolo italiano: "Gastone, il bel pigrone"