Sloth Went

It’s a big day for Sloth: his first time leaving the tree to go poop. Excited but also nervous, he is reassured on his journey by a cast of characters, including a butterfly, a frog, and his mom, who lovingly consoles him, “Don’t worry . . . Everything will come out fine.” Sloth makes his way hesitantly down the tree, but by the time he reaches the ground—and thanks to Frog’s advice to “listen to your body and it will all work out”—Sloth is ready to pick out a place to take care of business. Successful in his efforts, he elatedly returns to his family in the tree, where he is welcomed with a promised surprise dish of fresh hibiscus flowers. With characteristic cleverness, Lehrhaupt (Warning: Do Not Open This Book!) does such a remarkable job of using doublespeak to describe the purpose of Sloth’s journey that readers might not realize his intentions—if not for a note about poop on the cover—until a laugh-out-loud moment of clarity at the story’s end. Shum offers humorous details depicting the pace of Sloth’s journey; as he climbs down the tree, he is overtaken by a caterpillar and later by a snail. Additional information at the end of the book shares with readers some interesting notes about a sloth’s actual excretion process.