Some kids find a mysterious animal falling from a tree in their yard. They do a lot of reading and their research leads them to the conclusion that it is a sloth from the South American rainforest (or is it??) and they send it back home.

Really delightful, classic kid story. The parents are not paying attention and the kids find out all the information on their own. The Easter eggs of posters and newspapers throughout the book advertising the zoo’s lost sloth are such a wonderful touch. ( )

Board book picked up on impulse at Porter Square Books the evening I was there to hear Elizabeth McCracken read from Bowlaway.

A sleepy sloth is discovered by some children, who do some research to find out where sloths live. They're oblivious to the ongoing hunt (there's a sloth missing from the local zoo), and post the sloth in a box back to its native land - where, finally, the sloth wakes up, and asks, Which way to the zoo? ( )

For this reading log I read Sloth Slept On, by Frann Preston-Gannon. I definitely enjoyed this story for many reasons. The message of this story is to encourage children to learn new things and to make discoveries, even if they sometimes might overlook the obvious.
Firstly, this story is engaging to its young readers and utilizes several strategies to achieve this. The size of the text varies often in this book. At some points, it is a small size when stating less urgent information. On one page, when one child realizes the animal they discovered was a sloth, he says, “LOOK! He is not an elephant or an astronaut or a pirate or a knight!” The word “look” takes up half of one page on its own, but the rest of the sentence is on another page in smaller font. In addition, the language used is also easy for the readers to understand, which helps them stay interested and to keep the story clear. One page says, “We looked in all the books we could find. They were full of pictures and words and places and things, but there was nothing that looked like our new friend.” This is just one example of the language in the story, and showing how it is easily comprehendible for its young readers.
Additionally, another reason that I enjoyed this story was because of how informative and descriptive it is. When the children discover the unknown creature is a sloth, they read a lot of information out of a book. “The sloth is a very sleepy animal. He can sleep hanging in a tree for up to 20 hours a day!” There are 2 full pages of facts like these about this animal, which provides details and background so the reader is learning along with the characters in the book.’
Finally, the illustrations in this book are vibrant, yet also imperative to the understanding of the story. We see the unknown animal and the children’s search for it’s identity in many pictures.
When they are imagining what the animal could be, there is one page that has no words and is only illustration. This really emphasizes the visuals of the story. The reason it is imperative to have certain illustrations is that throughout the story when we see the sloth, there are signs with pictures of the sloth that read “MISSING! If found, please return to the zoo.” The children do not notice these, but they really show a lot of the message of the story. They end up sending the sloth to the rainforest, when he really should’ve gone back to the zoo. Through all of this, we see the children’s discovery, even when they overlooked some details. ( )

I love sloths so this book was interesting to find and read! This book is an interesting contemporary fiction as it could be true with realistic characters and possibilities but did not ever happen. Its media is not stated but is a mixed media with ink and what looks like paper on paper art. I would most likely use this book to let kids have an overview of sloths and get them interested in these cool animals! I could use this for any grade that can read by themselves for the most part as the book is very short and fairly simple, but most likely grades 4th-6th. ( )