A Little Book of Sloth

Cooke, whose YouTube videos and 2011 Animal Planet documentary, Too Cute! Baby Sloths, set off a minor sloth-loving craze, offers an encyclopedic look at these permanently smiling, adorably snub-nosed "masters of mellow" by way of a photo-tour of their now famous sanctuary in Costa Rica. There are sloths in pajamas (which are actually necessary because they can't control their body temperature), sloths in a "cuddle puddle," sloths hugging stuffed animals, sloths gazing into the camera with small but trusting eyes (even when they're upside down)—all proof that life in the fast lane is vastly overrated (it probably helps that these sloths aren't covered in algae and insects, as they are in the wild). An Oxford-trained zoologist, photographer, and documentarian, Cooke writes with a firm sense of authority and a loving irreverence ("Since their top speed is fifteen feet a minute, running from danger is simply not an option"; "Baby sloths are Jedi masters of the hug") that lifts these pages far above most real-life animal books and should make the inevitable umpteenth readaloud easy to bear. Ages 5-up. (Mar.)

Gr 3-5--Cooke's chatty, colloquial appreciation focuses on baby sloths in a Costa Rican sanctuary. The rescued infants and a few older companions were introduced in a documentary film, Too Cute! Baby Sloths, made by Cooke for TV's Animal Planet. Appealing color photographs of these winsome babies will surely captivate animal lovers. Bits of information on physical characteristics, behavior, and life in the sanctuary thread through an admiring discussion, emphasizing the smiling faces, hugging propensities, and sleepy lifestyle of the sloths. The science information is sketchy and often in terms likely to be most meaningful to adult readers. "The Bradypus, or three fingered sloth, is the Muppet with the medieval haircut and Mona Lisa smile." The fingers appear to be claws, and no further explanation of their structure and use is provided. Though the text mentions ways the baby sloths are actually trained to carry out some bodily functions as they would occur in the wild, there's no mention of these animals ever being released from the sanctuary except in a brief endnote on respecting sloths as wild animals not to be made into pets. This message runs a bit counter to the gushiness of the text and the many scenes of humans cuddling them. Though explanations and information about both the sloths and the sanctuary are rather skimpy, this is an attractive introduction to an unfamiliar species.--Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston