Sloth Slept On - Hardcover

Frann Preston-Gannon has worked freelance for a variety of clients that include: Vintage Books, Sunday Publishing, The PRCA, Spears Magazine, Pavilion Books, the Times, and Burt's Bees. She is the author and illustrator of The Journey Home (Pavilion Press), as well as How to Lose a Lemur and Dinosaur Farm (both Sterling). In April 2011, Frann became the first UK recipient of a Sendak Fellowship and spent a month living with and learning from the great master of illustration, Maurice Sendak, at his home in Connecticut. She was also awarded a bronze medal for her unpublished children's illustrations in the 3x3 Magazine annual competition. She lives in London.

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, NYα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.