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The mother in Offill’s (11 Experiments that Failed) latest picture book will allow her daughter to have a pet, but she stipulates, “you can have any pet you want as long as it doesn’t need to be walked or bathed or fed.” To narrow down her search, the girl turns to her school librarian and volume S of the Animal Encyclopedia. The facts about a sloth almost suit her mom’s criteria, so she sends away for him by Express Mail.
Sparky the sloth doesn’t do much (“It took two days before I saw him awake”), and pretentious Mary Potts isn’t impressed with the trick he does while all covered in glitter at the Trained Sloth Extravaganza, but his owner learns to love him.
This book is easy to love. The story contains humor and emotion. The girl’s wide-open eyes become more relaxed as she says “You’re it, Sparky.” As Sparky and the girl sit on a tree branch watching the sun set, we see them smile for the first time.
Chris Appelhans’s watercolor and pencil illustrations of the new pet owner interacting with her sloth exemplify true kindness. She watches him in the dark and in the rain, and she carries him so gently. The little girl’s eyes, which brim with hopeful thoughts for her pet at the beginning of the story, become filled with a look of acceptance by the end of the book.
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Sparky!