THE MAN WHO WAS TOO LAZY TO FIX THINGS

The author of an old favorite, The Man Who Didn't Wash His Dishes (1950), comes up with a fable about a man who doesn't bother to maintain his fine new house. Actually, he's not so much lazy as inept, while his efforts at repair are just dumb (Band- Aids to mend a chair) and some of the details aren't apt (cats don't usually mar doors trying to get in). In the end, his brother's family arrives and puts everything to rights—but the man, it's implied, hasn't learned a thing. It's a promising idea; unfortunately, it hasn't been developed with enough logic or humor to make a satisfying story. Meanwhile, Cymerman makes a respectable picture book debut with pen-and-watercolor art that somewhat augments the humor, depicting ``the man'' as an amusingly heavy-eyed incompetent. (Picture book. 4-8)