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Summary
Summary
"Score another one for Lester and Munsinger." --Publishers Weekly The sloths at Sleepy Valley Sloth School are content in their slothfulness. One day, a new sloth arrives, a go-getter, a mover and a shaker--which is to say she actually moves. The other sloths think she's a pest, and she thinks they're bores, that is until a real boar arrives--an official representative of S.O.S. (Society for Organizing Sameness) sent to close the school. Something has to be done, and all eyes turn to Sparky . . . This new addition to the Laugh-Along Lessons series focuses on the importance of being true to yourself. Includes a parent/teacher discussion guide and downloadable audio!
Featuring bonus audio!
Author Notes
Helen Lester and Lynn Munsinger have collaborated on many funny and popular books for children, including the stories starring Tacky the Penguin and Wodney Wat, as well as the new Laugh-Along Lessons series. Helen Lester is a full-time writer who makes her home in New York. Visit www.helenlester.com . Lynn Munsinger has lived in Vermont and Connecticut, devoting her time to freelance illustration.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-Everything is nice and peaceful at Sleepy Valley Sloth School, with the sloths content in their slothfulness, until Sparky arrives. She is, just as her name would indicate, full of energy, and decidedly unslothlike: "Let's read a story! Hey, we could use a little music!" She soon dubs her classmates "a bunch of bores," as they try to ignore her and continue to nap. When a representative of the S.O.S. (Society for Organizing Sameness)-"a real boar"-arrives to close the school because of its low test scores, it is up to Sparky to save the day. Somehow Munsinger manages to make sloths endearing. The illustrations add delightful comic details that build on the text. For example, the classroom is decorated with the sloths' artful crayon renderings of a pillow, bed, and recliner and the chalkboard reveals they have been counting sheep for the math lesson. The day's schedule lists "nothing" for both the morning and afternoon. Though fans of the Lester/Munsinger team will at least want to consider this one, it is not as successful as Hooway for Wodney Wat (Houghton, 2001). Some of the story lacks logic; it is unclear if anything will change for Sparky after she tricks the boar and the school is allowed to continue. Will she be just as bored with her fellow students or will she become more slothlike? While the art is great, the text relies on easy laughs, perhaps at the expense of the story.-Robin L. Gibson, Perry County District Library, New Lexington, OH (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
An energetic and spunky new classmate is anything but contagious to the pajama-clad, somnambulistic students at Sleepy Valley Sloth School. "The propitiously paired collaborators behind Tacky the Penguin again turn out a comic caper with a subtly delivered moral," said PW. Ages 4-8. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Primary) True to their nature, the sloths at Sleepy Valley Sloth School spend most of their time yawning and dozing. They're also big on snoring. The sports equipment in their classroom is covered with cobwebs; the pictures adorning the walls are of pillows and La-Z-Boy recliners; and the posted schedule is undemanding, to say the least (""Morning-nothing. Afternoon-nothing""). Enter Sparky, a new classmate-""a mover and a shaker and a go-getter"" whose boundless energy drives the other sloths crazy. Yet when a boar representing the Society for Organizing Sameness visits the school and berates the students for their low rankings in reading, music, block building, math, and poetry, it's Sparky who steps in to save the day. Cleverly exploiting the students' natural tendencies, Sparky shows just how accomplished her classmates can be in subjects such as music (she plays ""Flight of the Bumble Bee"" on the violin while the others snore ""ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ"" in accompaniment) and poetry (every sloth can recite ""The Way of the Sloth"" in his or her sleep). The gently amusing story, enhanced by Munsinger's characteristically humorous illustrations, makes perfect bedtime reading. Just looking at these pajama-clad sloths contentedly draped over desks, hanging from hammocks, and flopped on the floor will make heads start to nod and eyes start to clo-zzzzzzz.... (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
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)
Booklist Review
Ages 4-8. Score one against rigid school standards with this farce that turns everything upside down, including both rote learning and creativity. 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. When a new sloth, Sparky, comes to school, full of vim and vigor, the others shove her away, until a real boar arrives from the Society for Organizing Sameness and declares that the school has such low ratings it will be closed. Then Sparky springs into action, leading her classmates in wild pretenses, physical and verbal, that trick the official into leaving them all, including Sparky, in peace for a very long nap. It's adults who will appreciate the ridicule of school bureaucrats and their standards. Kids will love the wordplay ("What's two plus two?" "For . . . get it.") and the pictures of the hairy snoring sloths who each do nothing their own way. --Hazel Rochman