Amazon.com Review
Whoever thought a bunch of slumbering sloths could do so well on a standardized test? But that's what happens--with a healthy dose of hoodwinking--in this tongue-in-cheek schoolroom story from comic duo Helen Lester (on words) and Lynn Munsinger (on sloths).
Everything's quietly copacetic at Sleepy Valley Sloth School: "Once in a while the teacher would remember his job and wake up with a lesson. 'All right, now,' he would drawl, 'everybody yawn.' Or 'Keep those snores coming.' Or 'All together, students, let's roll over.'" But one day an energetic young sloth (they do, apparently, exist) starts mixing things up, much to the annoyance of her classmates. But her "vim and vigor and vitality" seem to have shown up not a minute too soon, because she's got to find a way for Sleepy Valley to pass the ratings board test of the Society for Organizing Sameness (the S.O.S., represented in this case by a wild boar in a bow tie).
Lester's story is often fun and funny, but the best parts of this book come from Munsinger's whimsically worn-out sloths--slumped under desks, draped over swing sets, even stacked up (snoozing) in between building blocks. Score one for the sloths, indeed. (Ages 4 to 8) --Paul Hughes
From Publishers Weekly
These propitiously paired collaborators (Hooway for Wodney Wat; Tacky the Penguin) again turn out a comic caper with a subtly delivered moral. Words and pictures set the scene with laugh-out-loud humor as readers meet the pajama-clad, somnambulistic students at Sleepy Valley Sloth School, which is perched on the branches of a tree. "Once in a while the teacher would remember his job and wake up with a lesson" in such demanding subjects as yawning, snoring and rolling over but most of the time "the class just slept." Instead of lunch hour there are "lunch three hours," followed by naptime, study hall (when the sloths fall asleep in a hammock or on the floor, their books covering their faces) and recess (which finds the classmates draped over a swing set, dozing). The dismissal bell rings at 3:00, yet it takes them until dusk to exit (the custodian finally sweeps them out with a broom). Enter Sparky, whose energy and spunk her new classmates find anything but contagious. However, when an inspector comes from the S.O.S. (Society for Organizing Sameness) in the Mammal District and threatens to close down the school, the sloths follow Sparky's cues to successfully perform the required tasks in such a way that they save their school without betraying their true nature. Score another one for Lester and Munsinger. Readers will hope the sloths return for a rematch. Ages 4-8.
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