Customer Reviews

Slowly, Slowly, Slowly Said The Sloth

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After all these years of presenting us with fabulous children's books, Eric Carle has outdone himself. "Slowly, Slowly," a beautifully written and illustrated tribute to the world's rain forests, will bring a tear to an adult's eye, and will appeal to children of ALL ages, despite its picture-book presentation.

Beginning with the thoughtful, simply written but heartfelt introduction by Jane Goodall, in which she explains the world of the sloth in terms anyone can understand, to the lovely wording of the book (the sloth does everything slowly, slowly...languid and lovely) to the trademark Carle collage illustrations, this book has something for everyone. And it educates in such a subtle way that even the most recalcitrant child will come away with a strong sense of who lives in the rain forests and why they must be preserved.

Every page features not only the sloth, but another animal as well, illustrated in the most enchanting of collage pictures. At the end of the book, each of these "extra" animals is listed by its special picture, and identified. And each is native to the rain forest.

What more can I say? I predict this will become Carle's legacy, outdoing all the rest of his work combined. I love it so much that I am ordering it for my college-age daughter, whose love of all things wild survived into her young adulthood.

Slowly, slowly, slowly...that's the way of the sloth. Whether crawling along a branch, or eating a leaf, the sloth never hurries, but spends most of his life hanging upside down from a tree branch in the rain forest, and sleeping, rain or shine. "Why are you so slow?" the howler monkey asked one day." And why so quiet and boring, other animals want to know. The sloth didn't answer. He just hung, silently, and slept. But when the jaguar asks why he's so lazy, the sloth finally sees the need to set the record straight. He may be many things, among them lackadaisical, unflappable, sluggish, calm, and laid-back. "I am relaxed and tranquil, and I like to live in peace. But I am not lazy." Then the sloth yawned and said, "That's just how I am. I like to do things slowly, slowly, slowly." Beginning with an intriguing forward by Jane Goodall, detailing the life and habits of the sloth, Eric Carle's wonderfully creative picture book pays homage to an unlikely and endearing hero. His spare and slothlike, repetitive text is quiet, soothing and engaging. But, as always, it's Mr Carle's bold, bright, and imaginative cut-paper collage illustrations that make this book stand out and sparkle. Each two page spread dazzles with vibrant color and clever detail as the many animals who live in the rain forest march by, and youngsters can find all their pictures and names displayed on the endpapers for further reference. Perfect for preschoolers, "Slowly, Slowly, Slowly," Said The Sloth is a captivating masterpiece that entertains and enlightens with its gentle message. As the sloth would tell you...Slow down, set your own pace, and enjoy life!

Slowly, Slowly, Slowly, Said the Sloth, written by Eric Carle, is a delightful children's picture book about the joys of learning to march to one's own drum. A sloth lives alone in the rain forest. The sloth does nothing but hang from the branches of his tree and sleep all day. During the course of the story various animals ask the sloth questions about his habits. "Why are you so slow?" "Why are you so lazy?" The sloth finally responds one day with the following rather simple but effective defense of his life style, "That's just how I am. I like to do things slowly, slowly, slowly." The illustrations are bright and colorful. Eric Carle's collage style is perfectly suited for creating the sloth's rain forest home and the many other animal denizens who populate its landscape. Slowly, Slowly, Slowly, Said the Sloth is an excellent book with a gentle and heart felt message for children.

Preston McClear,

This is one of my favorite books to read to my daughter at night, and it is one of her faves as well. The art and prose are beautiful, and whether or not the child understands all of the words is beside the point. It is great for getting the little one to slow down her engine and appreciate those who may not move at the same speed. Drawing on the biblical standpoint of sloth as one of the deadly sins, the other creatures ridicule the sloth for being so lazy. Here Carle gets us to appreciate the great virtue of being, well, "slothful." In this fast-moving and chaotic world (which greatly affects our kids whether we care to admit it or not)the sloth can teach us a lot through his contemplative and deliberate philosophy of life. I strongly recommend this book.

My 3-year old son is just bananas about this book, which desribes the attributes of a sloth a way that also introduces children to some excellent new vobaulary. This is a fun, sweet book in the traditionally imaginative and joyful way that Eric Carle's book approach children and teaching.

Bought this book for my grandson. This is one of his favorite books. He loves books & being read to.

My goal is to acquire every Eric Carle book for my son! We love the Sloth story!

This book is classic Carle. Easy flowing text and pretty pictures. Overall it's a good little story though I must admit the ending will not be understood by little ones. Many "big words" are used and I don't think many would understand them or the point of the message.

There is a great introduction by Jane Goodall. My little girl listened to it instead of getting bored from it as such detailed information tends to be dry. My girl was "grossed out" (in a funny way) by the fact the Sloth rarely leave the trees and will come down to go to the bathroom and go back up much thinner!

She also had a little fun looking for the animals that are listed in the back of the book.

Overall; it's a nice book but it did not get the same level of repeat reads as with previous books.

I purchased this book because of my interest in the rain forest and to read to my granddaughter. I liked how many animals were introduced in this story. This introduction was reinforced by having pictures of all the animals, with their names, on the last two pages.

The last text page incorporates many words that describe a sloth. This page could be used as a wonderful vocabulary lesson.

I would recommend this book to other grandparents, parents, and teachers of pre-school and early elementary grades.

A fabulous story with beautiful illustrations. Eric Carle has done it again!

My 1.5-year-old adores Eric Carle books, and we checked this one out from the library. She went absolutely ape for this story. After reading it approximately 200 times, we returned the library's copy and decided to buy one for ourselves.

I appreciate the fact that he uses a list of longer and more difficult words in the sloth's speech at the end of the book. I think this is fantastic for developing little ones' vocabularies!