This is a book for elementary school grades 2 and 3 students. After Lazy Bear kills a rattlesnake that had terrified the pioneers, Lazy Bear is helped by a man who removes from his paw the rusty nail that had handicapped him.

A normally thoughtful bear becomes lazy and downright unkind after he discovers a wagon to play with.

An unhappy elderly couple are transformed back into children by a magical bear who takes them down the road to share new adventures, gathering up cowardly lion twins, redundant circus performers and a ship with an all-penguin crew. Lazy Bear Lane was Thorne Smith's only children's book and its wonderland of innocence deserves to be read again and again.