Written and Illustrated by Eric Carle. Ages: 3+
The magical world of Eric Carle needs no introduction. There wouldn't be a school or a house without a copy of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". Ever since he illustrated first for "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see", he has been creating his own stunning picture books that have been translated into many languages and have sold millions and millions of copies world-wide.
I adore his rich illustrations that are basically collages of tissue papers that he paints in different colours. They create such unique, vivid backgrounds for his stories. And his stories are great picks from nature itself and so, are interesting as well as educational! He is also such a benign, sweet person and a nature lover himself. This really shows in all of his books.
One of our favourite reads of Eric Carle is " Slowly, Slowly, Slowly Said the Sloth". It is set in a luscious amazon rainforest setting and the main character is the slow, slow, slow Sloth. While all the animals pass him by and question his sluggish attitude, the sloth simply hangs on unconcerned and unaffected by it all. Finally he delivers one of the best "punch dialogues" ever that has to be read to be relished! It is the perfect punch for pushy people who are always rushing through life and also just the right attitude to carry!
This book really made me introspect my impatience with kids. Children are learning all the time and catching up on new things every day. Every child is different and takes his/her own time to grasp and do things. But all parents tend to hurry the children up in anger or exasperation sometime or the other and simply accuse them as being lazy. And how so wrong we are!
The kids loved the different words they can use to defend themselves when mum shouts "lazybones, hurry up!" And I have to admit, I learned a word or two from the sloth as well! As if it is all not enough, the closing page has a collection of exotic rainforest animals in striking collages and is a great hit with the inquisitive kids.
Slowly, slowly, slowly, but quite steadily, the Sloth has captured our hearts!
Here's Eric Carle talking about his inspiration for this book.
And here's a reading of the book itself in Youtube.
Finally, here's an example of how slow (but cute!) a sloth is...
