Tag Emma Lazell

That Dog!

jillrbennett Leave a comment

That Dog!
Emma Lazell
Pavilion Books

Author/illustrator Emma Lazell’s second picture book features Penny who has a particular penchant for purloining pooches, and her new accomplice Pat.

Penny has set her sights on ‘new dog in town’, a multi-talented dog and spotty all over; but it’s down to Pat to procure the creature.

It’s evident from the outset that the highly desirable, dappled dog is a whole lot more savvy than his would-be dog-nappers,

not least Penny who only ever gives Pat partial information about that which she desires.

As he sets out on his first mission. ‘Spotty all over’ is the description she gives her eager to please helper.

He’s surely spoilt for choice when he reaches his destination but which one will he take? Here’s a clue – it’s ‘a bit wiggly and a bit squiggly’.

Has he bitten off more than he can chew however, for the hound (something of a spare-time detective) is watching his every move

as we see in Emma’s caninely comical art when the dog-napper returns on several occasions, each time seizing the wrong animal until …

Altogether this is most definitely, a delightfully dotty and diverting tale.

Big Cat

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Big Cat
Emma Lazell
Pavilion

The small girl narrator and her gran’s search in the back garden for Grandma’s missing specs yield not the glasses but a ginormous moggy.

It isn’t Ruby, Gertrude, Hufflystink or Twinklywhiskers so Grandma decides a closer look is necessary. She’s mightily impressed by what she sees …

but there is no way they can keep the cat and so they ask their neighbours if it belongs to any of them.

The answer is a big fat no and so Big Cat becomes a resident with Grandma and her other feline friends; but as she says herself, she really does need to locate her specs.

The newcomer proves enormous fun and extremely useful. The only trouble is, the supplies of cat food dwindle very quickly no matter how many times they’re replaced. It’s not just the cat food that is vanishing though, it’s the human’s food too.

One day the doorbell rings: who could it be? Not Gran’s replacement glasses as they’re due to be ready tomorrow.

There on the doorstep stand two strangers, one clutching some specs and asking if they happen to belong to Grandma.

They do, and to show her gratitude, she asks them in (somewhat unwisely you might be thinking) for tea.

Fortunately however, the visitors are very well-mannered and a friendship is forged between them and the narrator.

As for Grandma, she has invested in lots of spare specs but even then, there are things she misses; but that’s a whole other story…

With visual references to Judith Kerr’s classic The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Emma Lazell’s debut picture book is funny and somewhat surreal. Observant readers will notice the whereabouts of the missing glasses on the very first spread and will in addition, delight in other visual ‘clues’ as to what is going on throughout as the chaos increases.

A feline frolic of the first order.