Sloth slept on

PreS-Gr 2-Three young siblings go on a knowledge quest to identify the mysterious animal asleep in their yard. They start with their dad, but he is too busy. Turning to the books in the house, they peruse titles such as Animals of the Ocean, Wonders of the Desert, and The Rainforest-all while an adult in the room is reading a newspaper with the headline "Zoo Breakout!" The siblings-two boys and a girl-work together to brainstorm: "We knew he wasn't an elephant. He didn't have a trunk. He wasn't a tiger, either. He didn't have any stripes. He wasn't a horse or a bear. He let out a loud snore. He was still asleep." Leave it to the youngest of the bunch to find a picture in the rainforest book that perfectly matches the mysterious creature snoring away! Delightful artwork, rendered in warm watercolors displayed with plenty of white space to allow the illustrations to pop off the page, helps tell this comical tale tinged with environmentalism. After the older siblings imagine that perhaps the mysterious creature is a pirate, an astronaut, or a knight, the youngest shouts out, "LOOK!" and proudly displays his reference book, identifying the creature as a sloth. A clever spread weaves factual information into the story, as the young boy shows his older siblings his book. A nice big box covered with stamps and packed with "lovely leaves to eat and toys for the journey" sends the sloth back to where the siblings think he belongs, the rainforest...where the sloth finally wakes up, looks around, and says, "Excuse me. Which way is the zoo?" VERDICT A crowd-pleaser for preschool storytimes.-Lisa Kropp, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Finding an alien animal asleep in the tree in their garden, children question what it is, making a surprising discovery while overlooking the obvious. When children spy a nonresponsive animal asleep in their tree, they know he's unlike any animal they've ever seen. With the sleeping creature in tow (in a wagon), the curious kids get no help from their busy father. After eliminating elephants, tigers, horses, and bears and checking their books, the puzzled kids wonder if their creature may have "traveled for a very long time, from somewhere far away." In a book about rain forests, they discover the mystery creature's a sloth, indigenous to rain forests of Central and South America. Packing their sleeping sloth into a box with leaves and toys, the kids mail him to the rain forest, unaware their sloth has escaped from the local zoo despite copious hints in the illustrations. Relying on simple shapes and judicious use of white space, droll watercolor paintings reveal the back story of the sloth's unexpected presence. The sloth remains blissfully asleep as the clueless kids ship him to the rain forest, oblivious to the posters and newspaper headlines announcing his escape from the zoo. Useful sloth facts and visual vignettes of the sloth as an astronaut, pirate, and knight add gravitas and levity, respectively. A neatly paced, cleverly presented, humorous lesson in awareness. (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.