“Slow Loris wasn’t his real name but that was what everyone called him. A slow loris is just a type of animal. Slow Loris was a slow loris. He really was . . . very . . . slow.” In his debut work for children, Deacon reveals the secret nightlife of the lemur-like creature and, in so doing, creates an original allegory about diversity, understanding, and acceptance. Rendered in mysterious tones of gray, black, and brown, a series of six vignettes first shows Loris barely roused as visitors troop by, then imperceptibly reaching for food left by the zookeeper. The full-bleed illustration that follows shows Loris loping towards the orange fruit looming large in the foreground. “It took Loris ten minutes to eat a satsuma,” reads the hand-lettered text. But readers soon learn Loris’s secret: “At night . . . Loris got up and did things . . . FAST . . .” An out-of-focus illustration foreshadows the frantic activity to come; a gatefold shows Loris’s fellow zoo dwellers peeking inside the cage and opens to reveal Loris banging on an overturned pot. The next night a pack of animals join Loris for a raucous party. Deacon’s hilarious illustration finds Loris at center stage, surrounded by revelers, wearing a fringed hat, and dancing with his thumbs up. What happens next is no surprise: pooped from a night of partying, all the animals join Loris in a slow and sleepy day. Pair this with Lynn Munsinger’s Score One for the Sloths (2001) and learn to take it easy. (Picture book. 4-8)
