On a sloth and pirañas: a book?

June 14, 2007 8:46 AM

I'm looking for a book about a sloth and pirañas. Do you know it?

I have this memory of reading a book when I was a kid that was about a sloth and the pirañas that wanted to eat him. It was illustrated. The sloth lived in a tree near the river. As he climbed further up a branch it began to lean over the river. The pirañas spotted him from the river and would try to jump out of the water to get a bite of him. The branch and sloth were too high up for them to get to the sloth. As time went on the sloth would climb out further on the branch bringing him a bit closer to the pirañas. In my head I want to imagine that they eventually got him. Instead, I think his branch eventually broke and got lodged in another place (over waterfalls?) where the pirañas could not get to the sloth.

Does anyone else know of this book? Did I completely imagine this memory?

posted by horseblind to media & arts (4 comments total)

Could it be Pilyo the Piranha?

"An Amazon River piranha is determined to make a meal of the sloth that sleeps on a branch overhanging the water."
posted by iconomy at 9:08 AM on June 14, 2007

I came across this book too, but no mention of sloths...
posted by iconomy at 9:19 AM on June 14, 2007

Thanks! That was fast! It seems I had the story a little skewed. My local library shows it in their catalog. I'll check it out and let you know if it's *not* the right book. I'm betting odds that it is though.
posted by horseblind at 9:20 AM on June 14, 2007

It seems I had the story a little skewed.

People usually do, me included ;)

I think it was just the fact that there are two ways to spell piranha that made it harder for you to find it.
posted by iconomy at 9:30 AM on June 14, 2007