Nonfiction Monday: A Little Book of Sloth, by

I know what I want for Christmas:

 

9781442445574

 

No, not the book (which I already picked up at our Scholastic Book Fair), I want a real, live baby sloth!

 

Okay, I know, wild animals are not pets (stay tuned for tomorrow's blog post for a lot more on THAT!). But, just look at these faces!

 

(Picture totally stolen from author's web site)

 

The book is one long gush about how adorable these guys are, which is not exactly conducive to convincing people to let them stay wild. Fortunately, there aren't very many sloths to be found in the United States (although Daddy did promise me that, the very first time he gets called out for nuisance sloths, I can keep them.)

 

Author Lucy Cooke and her family run a refuge for sloths in Costa Rica, offering tours and even sleepovers. They admittedly went into the project knowing next to nothing, and despite not being able to find many resources to help, seem to have been quite successful at it. They have not been able to reintroduce many orphaned sloths to the wild, mainly because of lack of research into how best to go about that, but report that they are embarking on such a research project right now.

 

The book does contain a few introductory factoids - descriptions of the different types of sloths, and the fact that they can turn their heads 270 degrees, so "their smiles are the right way up". This is definitely more fun-coffee-table-book than report material, however.

 

And it is definitely a fun book! I look forward to bringing it home to the kids, so they can join me in ganging up on daddy with big pleading eyes. In the meantime, any Costa Rican readers need the number of a nuisance control person???

 

Check out more great nonfiction at Shelf-Employed this week.