French / France
Dans la forêt du paresseux
(In the forest of the sloth)
Strady, Sophie
(text)
Boisrobert, Anouck
(illus./idea/concept)
Rigaud, Louis
(illus./idea/concept)
Paris: Hélium, 2011. – [14] p.
ISBN 978-2-35851-052-3
Forest | Deforestation | Ecology | Environmental protection | Animal protection | Pop-up book | Picture book
Reading age: 3+
White Ravens issue: 2012
This book is a little gem produced by the laureled French pop-up book specialists Boisrobert and Rigaud: A forest is home to many animals and people, but when bulldozers and saws threaten the paradise, everyone flees! Only a sloth remains, swaying amongst the branches, clearly feeling unthreatened by the danger. Is he behaving like us readers for whom “the forest of the sloth” – the tropical rain forest – is so far away? On the second to last page, the saving transformation occurs. When everything seems destroyed, a wise man sows tree seeds. Trees sprout from the earth, and a new forest (with sloth) is generated that even blankets the destructive machines. This winning story, combined with surprising and sophisticated pop-up pages, represents the destruction of forests and its consequences in a simple, expressive way for readers of all ages.