SCORE ONE FOR THE SLOTHS

An amusing, if decidedly sleepy, tale of sloths and the very relaxing atmosphere of their school—an institution thrown in jeopardy by a bureaucrat of conventional stripe—from the hand-and-glove team behind Tacky the Penguin and Wodney Wat. Sleepy Valley Sloth School lives up to its name: nobody here but drowsy sloths. They snooze through their lessons—so do their teachers—through their recess, through their study hall. They sleep “until six o’clock when the custodian swept them out, and they rolled home.” It was one contented educational establishment. One day a disruptive influence makes the scene: a young fireplug of a sloth named Sparky, who tries to light some fire under her classmates: “ ‘Let’s read a story! Hey, we could use a little music! Want to build a castle? Anyone for math? How about some poetry?’ ” No takers. “ ‘What a bunch of bores,’ ” she sighs. Then a real boar pushes through the door, an operative from the Society for Organizing Sameness, come to close the school for failing in all subjects. Sparky saves the school by dazzling the organization man with feats of reading, music, math, and poetry. Who says sloths are underachievers? They’re being sloths, and just how many creatures have had their name elevated to a common adjective? Only Munsinger could so perfectly catch them in all their languid glory, from the opening page when they are quite literally “just hanging around” as loose-limbed and zonked-out as anything ever seen, to as nearly awake as a sloth can get while piled up in a heap trying to pay attention. And the belly laughs induced by Lester’s words will keep everyone awake. (Picture book. 3-7)