Sandy Sloth

When life feels too heavy to move, even one tiny step can matter.

Meet Sandy Sloth, a gentle little sloth who has always moved at her own pace. But lately, Sandy doesn’t just feel slow—she feels heavy.

Things she used to enjoy don’t feel fun anymore. She wants to hide away. Some days she feels sad, while other days she feels empty or tired. And a heavy little cloud has started whispering things like “Nobody wants me around” and “I can’t do anything.”

Sandy doesn’t understand why she feels this way—until she begins to learn that she doesn’t have to face her heavy days alone.

Sandy Sloth: When Life Feels Too Heavy to Move is a compassionate therapeutic children’s story designed to help children understand depression in language they can relate to. Through Sandy’s journey, children learn that difficult feelings are real, but feelings aren’t always facts—and feeling bad does not mean there is something bad about them.

Along the way, Sandy discovers practical tools for getting through heavy days, including:

• Taking one tiny step at a time
• Challenging unhelpful thoughts
• Talking to herself with kindness
• Caring for her body when her mind feels heavy
• Reconnecting with people and activities
• Asking a safe grown-up for help
• Creating a personal Heavy-Day Plan
• Understanding that having another hard day doesn’t mean starting over

Most importantly, Sandy learns that getting help is not giving up—it is taking care of yourself.

The story is followed by therapeutic resources and activities that help children practice what Sandy learns, including Sandy’s Heavy-Day Toolbox, My Heavy-Day Plan, Feelings vs. Facts, Tiny Steps, a child-friendly Mood Check-In, and more.

A dedicated Parents & Caregivers section also provides information about childhood depression, warning signs that may indicate a child needs professional support, and guidance for responding when a child expresses thoughts about death, self-harm, disappearing, or not wanting to be alive.

Created by Kristi Godwin, LMFT, Sandy Sloth combines an engaging illustrated story with practical emotional-health tools for children, families, counselors, therapists, teachers, and other helping professionals.

Because even when life feels too heavy to move...
you never have to carry it alone.