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THE CASE OF THE SLEEPY SLOTH by Cynthia Rylant

THE CASE OF THE SLEEPY SLOTH

by Cynthia Rylant & illustrated by G. Brian Karas

Pub Date: Aug. 1st, 2002
ISBN: 0-06-009098-7
Publisher: HarperCollins

Jack and Bunny are back with a new case. Chums—Bunny is perhaps a tad on the bossy side, Jack perhaps shading into twerpdom—they have repaired to the dock to have their pizza. Bunny warns Jack not to feed the seagulls. “They’ll just linger,” Bunny says. But Jack can’t help himself, and before long, the lingering seagulls eat the entire pizza. As Bunny gives Jack a hard look, they notice a dog, a “weird dog in yellow pants,” mooching about on an adjacent dock. Curious, they approach the hound and learn he is Ramon, who dislikes earthquakes and has lost his lawn chair. Bunny and Jack unravel the case, which involves some meteorological sleuthing, and find the missing chair under the snoozing body of an old sloth, whose been sleeping in it since it blew in last Monday. Rylant has lots of fun with wordplay—“ ‘And what about that name?’ said Jack. ‘What name?’ asked Bunny. ‘Ruth,’ said Jack. ‘Ruth Sloth. It makes your tongue funny.’ ” Best is the verbal to-and-froing as these two banter and debate the scene, solving everything, including how to make a new reader laugh out loud. (Easy reader. 5-7)