Panda - Softcover

Grade 2-4-Allen's book is clearly intended to create an awareness of the plight of the endangered giant panda. On an expedition in a western Chinese forest with his father and another botanist, Jake is left alone at the campsite while they search for orchids. He takes a walk, and returns to find a panda eating their food. The boy gives it stalks of bamboo, but fails to lure the animal out of the tent. He photographs it as it rests on his sleeping bag. Frightened by the noise of the advancing film, it rushes out. Later, a dinnertime visit from his furry friend convinces the unbelieving adults that the boy's story is true. The animal's appearance and eating habits (and the strange life cycle of the bamboo plant) are described in context. Pale watercolor illustrations show scenes of the forest in blues, browns, greens, and yellows. Photolike closeups of child and beast (and smaller paintings of the adults) add realism. Susan Bonners's Panda (Delacorte, 1978) gives much more information about the bear's life cycle for the same age group, and Miriam Schlein's Jane Goodall's Animal World: Pandas (Aladdin, 1989) is a better source for reports.
Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ages 4-8. Twelve-year-old Jake gets the opportunity to accompany his botanist father and his father's boss, Professor Beall, on a botany expedition in China. While alone in camp, he is visited by a panda that eats the food Jake provides and then curls up for a nap. Jake takes a picture, but the panda wakes up and accidently breaks the camera while leaving. Jake is indignant and depressed when his father and the professor don't believe his story and imply that he made it up to explain why he ate so much food and broke an expensive camera. However, the panda returns, and the adults are forced to believe their own eyes as they see Jake feed it again. Charmingly illustrated with watercolors depicting animals and birds in beautiful relief against a misty, bosky background, the story provides a wealth of information about pandas and their natural habitat cleverly disguised as a delightful adventure. A panda fact sheet is appended. Sheilamae O'Hara