Super Sloth: The shar-wolf of New York City by Aleesah Darlison. Illus. By Cheri Hughes

A love of Sloths and Super Heros inspired Aleesah Darlison to create an amusing new series for young readers that is exciting and full of adventure. This first book contains the origin story of her main character, Romeo Fortez, a pygmy sloth, born on a wild and stormy night on isolated Escudo Island off the coast of Panama. On the night of his naming ceremony a once in a millennium event occurs that gives him special powers of speed, intelligence, dashing good looks and a thirst for adventure.  He also learns to use what he calls his super cute sloth hypnosis mode, which allows him to calm and control the angriest of animals to get them to forget why they were upset.

Of course, an island is too small to keep a Super Sloth like Romeo happy, so he decides to move to New York City and quickly encounters trouble with a strange, giant creature called a Shar-wolf – a mixture between a shark and a wolf.  While rescuing a girl from its clutches he befriends a crime-fighting group consisting of Tulip, the tough street-smart Cheetah, Hamilton Porker, the Vespa riding pig and headed by Beth Castlemaine, the confident and assertive daughter of a very wealthy banker.  Together they hunt down the source of the strange genetically mixed creatures that have started wreaking havoc in the city and bring the culprit, Professor Ian Weird-Warp to justice.  The book is peopled by a myriad of animal characters, woven into everyday life and makes for an exciting read.  It provides readers with thrilling adventures which also portray teamwork and positive values. The pace of the action and the inclusion of some full page illustrations will also make them appealing to most reluctant readers.

Themes: Sloths, Genetic engineering, Monsters, Superheroes, Good and evil.

Gabrielle Anderson