The Lazy Hyena
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| Author | Joo Hong Low |
| Publisher | Marshall Cavendish Children |
| Original run | 2011 |
| [[Wikipedia:<name of Wikipedia page>|Wikipedia]] | |
The Lazy Hyena is a children's book written by Joo Hong Low and is based on an old Chinese idiom, Shou Zhu Dai Tu. The idiom is based on a story about a farmer who rested by a tree and saw a rabbit die by crashing into it. Upon seeing this, the farmer cooked the rabbit and concluded that he did not need to work hard to receive rewards. He then spent a month waiting for rabbits by his tree instead of farming and eventually died due to having caught no rabbits nor grown any crops. Thus comes the meaning of the idiom Shou Zhu Dai Tu which means "Guarding a tree stump, waiting for rabbits".
In the book, Two Tusks the warthog is friends with two rabbits, Huang and Zhi. They play together every day in Heping Nature Park which is shown in the opening pages of the book. In these pages, Two Tusks is shown inflated from holding his breath underwater. A similar image is shown at the end of the book as part of a spot-the-difference challenge for readers.
While playing one day, Zhi trips and lands on Four Tooth the hyena's head. The two friends watch in horror as Four Tooth immediately swallows Zhi whole. They want to rescue their friend but neither is large enough to fight the hyena. Before they can act, Four Tooth's friends arrive and ask him if he wants to go hunting with them. Four Tooth tells them that he doesn't need to hunt anymore and chooses to wait for more rabbits. Upon hearing this, Two Tusks and Huang devise a plan to save Zhi by starving Four Tooth. Huang distracts Four Tooth by hopping around him all day while Two Tusks builds his strength to fight Four Tooth. Four Tooth gets weaker and thinner from waiting until Two Tusks is finally able to squeeze Zhi out of him. There is also an image of a starved Four Tooth trying to catch up with his friends who've caught a zebra. This is followed by another image of the hyena seemingly passed out from hunger.
- FourTooth-TLH-8.png
