Score One for the Sloths - Couverture souple

An amusing, if decidedly sleepy, tale of sloths and the very relaxing atmosphere of their school-an institution thrown in jeporady 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.". . . One day a disruptive influence makes the scene: ayoung fireplug of a sloth named Sparky, who tries to light some fire under her classmates. . . "'What a bunch of bores.'" she signs. 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 Kirkus Reviews with Pointers

"Score another one for Lester and Munsinger, Readers will hope the sloths return for a rematch." —Publishers Weekly Publishers Weekly

"Lester’s laid-back text is packed with silly puns, and Munsinger’s hilariously detailed line-and-watercolor pictures express the delicious relaxation of Sleepy Valley Sloth School, where everyone, teachers and kids, literally hangs around." Booklist, ALA

The sloths at Sleepy Valley Sloth School were content in their slothfulness. Once in a while the teacher would awake and command them all to yawn or snore, but most of the time, the class just slept. One day, a new sloth arrives. She isn’t much like a sloth at all. She is a go-getter, a mover and a shaker—which is to say she actually moves. By mid-morning she’s driven the other sloths crazy. They think she’s a pest, and she thinks they’re nothing but a bunch of bores, that is until a real boar arrives—an official representative of S.O.S. (Society for Organizing Sameness) sent to close the school because of their low academic scores. Something has to be done, and all eyes turn to Sparky. Even with all of her energy though, Sparky can’t save the school alone.
Readers are sure to enjoy this humorous tale that celebrates the value of both individuality and being true to oneself.