Mama in the Moon

Baby Sloth loves sleeping nestled high up in a tree “between/ his mama/ and the moon.” When he tumbles to the ground, the tangerine-hued puffball lands in “a soft patch” of foliage, but he’s nevertheless beyond forlorn in the inky darkness. Regarding the silhouetted, tangled vegetation around him with wide, anxious eyes, he feels “far away from home./ Far away from Mama.” His mother quickly assures that she’s coming to the rescue, but a series of panels depicting the sloth’s glacially paced descent suggest that her arrival is likely to take a while. In response to her son’s repeated calls of “Are you close now, Mama?” she tells Baby to focus on the details around him. Collaborators the Cronins (Lawrence & Sophia) show how the smell of yellow flowers, the sound of pink worms wriggling in fallen leaves, and the feel of blue moths fluttering all seem to light up the darkness by dint of the little sloth’s budding powers of observation-as-self-regulation. By the time Mama’s long arm extends lovingly into the frame, Baby has proved a little wiser, a lot calmer—and fully worthy of emulation. Ages 2–5. (Apr.)