I had to laugh.
I put Happy Sloth Day! (2022) on reserve at my local public library… and it took a reaaally loooong time to reach me.
Happy Sloth Day! is a nonfiction picture book about sloths. The illustrations are all pictures. Author April Pulley Sayre wrote many books for children before her premature death in 2021, specializing in science and nature-related nonfiction for kids. (This book also credits Jeff Sayre, her husband, who is an expert in native plants.)
Happy Sloth Day! is an interesting book, because it is really two or three books fit together. The pictures are clear and vivid, and make it seem like a kid-focused coffee table book, something to pick up and flip through. Then there are brief lines, essentially vivid captions, that either join images on the page or fill white space, usually on the left page or left side of the page. Those are simple, pleasant, and easy to read: one page reads just “A tree is sloth salad.” Nice! Then there are chunks of smaller, denser prose, clearly aimed at adults reading the book with or to the kid. These provide bits of scientific information, like explaining that if a sloth gets too cold, “the leaf-digesting bacteria inside its stomach stop working.” Very different level, very different audience…but this works.
If you’re looking for a book on sloths, or something with good pictures, pick this up.
