Score One for the Sloths (Laugh-Along Lessons)

Whoever thought a bunch of slumbering sloths could do so well on a standardized test? But that's what happens--with a healthy dose of hoodwinking--in this tongue-in-cheek schoolroom story from comic duo Helen Lester (on words) and Lynn Munsinger (on sloths).

Everything's quietly copacetic at Sleepy Valley Sloth School: "Once in a while the teacher would remember his job and wake up with a lesson. 'All right, now,' he would drawl, 'everybody yawn.' Or 'Keep those snores coming.' Or 'All together, students, let's roll over.'" But one day an energetic young sloth (they do, apparently, exist) starts mixing things up, much to the annoyance of her classmates. But her "vim and vigor and vitality" seem to have shown up not a minute too soon, because she's got to find a way for Sleepy Valley to pass the ratings board test of the Society for Organizing Sameness (the S.O.S., represented in this case by a wild boar in a bow tie).

Lester's story is often fun and funny, but the best parts of this book come from Munsinger's whimsically worn-out sloths--slumped under desks, draped over swing sets, even stacked up (snoozing) in between building blocks. Score one for the sloths, indeed. (Ages 4 to 8) --Paul Hughes