Themes: mindfulness, the Amazon, slow living, acceptance

Young readers will learn about the creatures who call the Amazon “home.”.

Jane Goodall writes a heart-felt forward about the importance of protecting the Amazon rainforest and the animals who depend on it for their existence.

Eric Carle’s illustrations are like walking into an Amazonian kaleidoscope.

Many of us could benefit from slowing down.

The message of Slowly, Slowly, Slowly is applicable to both the lives of children and adults in today’s world.

Only after gentle meditation does he reply with his words of wisdom on slow living. Instead, he thinks, he sits, and collects his ideas.

They ask, “Why are you so lazy?” and “Why are you so boring?” The sloth listens, but does not react or reply quickly. We meet other forest friends like the anteater, the caiman, and the monkey who are curious about the sloth’s behavior. In Slowly, Slowly, Slowly,” said the Sloth, we journey to South America and follow a wonderfully slow sloth in his day-to-day tranquility. Slowly, Slowly, Slowly resonates to my grown-up self I am an adult with an internally slow soul, who lives in a fast world. I’ve grown up, but I continue to have a soft spot in my heart for Eric Carle books. While his stories may seem simple at first glance, Carle writes with the grace of a skilled author of children’s books, carefully weaving purpose and meaning into his story, while using a limited amount of words. As a child, I’d joyfully turn the pages of the book, enchanted with the geometric bright collages that are often associated with Eric Carle. My earliest book memory is of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.

Slowly slowly sloth