Thimmesh, Catherine. Camp Panda: Helping Cubs Return to the Wild – An Award-Winning Science Book About Giant Pandas and Conservation in China for Kids. Clarion Books, 2018. 64 pages. $10.28, ISBN 978-0544818910.
What’s black, white, and red all over?
A panda eating a watermelon!
Just kidding, pandas don’t eat watermelon, they eat bamboo. Camp panda is an exploration of the Panda Reintroduction Program based out of the Chinese Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in the Wolong Nature Reserve. The CCRCGP is the main source of information that Thimmesh uses to explain how baby pandas are reintroduced (and why) back into the wild with no human contact (or at least the pandas don’t realize their caregivers are humans in panda suits). Thimmesh is a children’s nonfiction author who consults professionals in the field of her books. Camp Panda is no different. Thimmesh sites her sources at the end of the book along with brief biographies of each of the people and organizations that she consulted with, like Huang Yan the lead of the Panda Reintroduction Program and Suzanne Braden from Pandas International.
The target audience of this book is readers aged 10-12 and the chapters flow easily into the next. There is plenty of white space on the pages and nothing overly large that take up unnecessary space. The formatting of this book is similar to a story book, in that Thimmesh tells the story about one panda cub and how it goes from being born to being released back into the wild. The book contains a glossary, index, biographies and references, as well as a call to action and what others can do to help pandas and other endangered animals. The photography used throughout the book show real-life pandas and people in the CCRCGP. There are no illustrations, only photographs.
Aldamuy Denise, Anika. Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré. Illustrated by Paola Escobar. HarperCollins, 2019. 40 pages. $10.99, ISBN 978-0062748683.
When seeds are planted, they are able to be observed growing, blooming, and flourishing. Anika Aldamuy Denise planted those seeds in this biographic story of the life of the first Puerto Rican librarian in New York. Aldamuy Denise is an author of Puerto Rican descent and the illustrator, Paolo Escobar, is Colombian. The story of Pura Belpré is a remarkable one, and Aldamuy Denise does an excellent job siting her sources, sharing more reading suggestions, and other resources available to learn more about Pura Belpré. The focus is on Belpré’s life from 1921-1961 and all of her amazing accomplishments along the way. The writing is good for the intended audience (4-8-year-old readers) and combines both English and Spanish. Having this contain Spanish phrases allows for the reader to explore a different language they might not have had experience with in the past and allows for the audience to ask questions. It also shows an authentic experience of non-English native speaker combining both languages to tell a story. Paola Escobar uses bright and bold colors often associated with Hispanic and Latin heritage. She also highlights the flow and pacing of the story with hand drawn flower strings that easily flow throughout the book, drawing the reader’s eye to different parts of the page. These flowers draw reader’s through Belpré’s life and the stories she planted and the blooms they turned into.
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