Ready, Steady, Sloth!
by Justin Anderson; illus. by Manu Montoya
Primary    Candlewick    32 pp.
5/25    9781536239621    $18.99
e-book ed.  9781536249316    $18.99

Mixed-media illustrations showcase the vibrant colors of a tropical rainforest and draw readers into this examination of a resident three-fingered sloth. Although slow-moving, the sloth and her young male offspring embark on a weekly “special mission,” the nature of which readers learn as the story unfolds. Small print below the main text provides facts that complement the action in the pictures (e.g., while shown descending a tree: sloths move at one-and-a-half miles per hour, as compared to humans’ maximum of twenty-seven and cheetahs’ of seventy). When our sloth finally lands on the forest floor, she completes that foreshadowed “special mission”: she “takes a big poop,” which consists of about a third of her body weight. Before returning to the forest canopy, she covers her poop with leaves (a behavior, scientists think, meant to keep it intact and thus make it easier for male sloths to locate females); and then she and her baby successfully evade a cheetah. Back matter includes brief illustrated descriptions of the seven kinds of sloths (all of which live in Central or South America) and provides two internet resources for further inquiry. A brief index concludes this entertaining and informative book.

From the July/August 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.