The Sloth and the Dinglewot
Nicole Prust and Amanda Enright
New Frontier Publishing

Think how many wonderful things you might miss if you never step outside your comfort zone.

That’s exactly what Samuel the sloth does one drowsy summer’s morning. Bored with merely lazing around like his fellow sloths, he takes the opportunity provided by Dinglewot Jinglewot Dingledum Dee, the colourful bird with bells on its feet that offers him an adventure.

Samuel is forced to embrace his fears as he decides to follow the Dinglewot through the treetops, across the grasslands, past the mountains, down a ravine to a dark cave.

Then, after exciting encounters with baboons and later, bats, they finally reach Dinglewotville, the land of the bird’s birth.

There Samuel discovers an amazing carnival and dances the night away – his best night ever.

But eventually for our adventurer it’s time to leave.

He returns to his fellow sloths in the hope that some of them too might set aside their fears and join him and his new friend on another adventure. You never know …

The flowing rhyme of debut author, Nicole Prust’s narrative and Amanda Enright’s richly coloured illustrations make for a lovely storytime read aloud that shows the importance of risk taking and of seizing life’s opportunities.