Baby Panda Is Born

Kids will love reading all about the panda Mei Lan, born at the Atlanta Zoo in September 2006. Through her story, they'll learn about what newborn pandas are like (they're the size of a stick of butter!), about their development, and about what life is like for pandas in the wild. This book also touches on efforts to protect this endangered species.

Kids will love reading all about the panda Mei Lan, born at the Atlanta Zoo in September 2006. Through her story, they'll learn about what newborn pandas are like (they're the size of a stick of butter!), about their development, and about what life is like for pandas in the wild. This book also touches on efforts to protect this endangered species.

Children's Literature

Why, how does it work, what is it—young children with inquiring minds want answers and the "All Aboard Science Reader" series can provide them. Pandas are big, gentle-looking creatures, so it is no wonder that people want to see them, but they are endangered in their native habitat in China. Fewer than 2,000 live in the wild and in captivity, so it was a major event in February 2007 when a baby panda was born at the Atlanta Zoo. The baby panda is so tiny and helpless at birth that it doesn't even look like a panda. At two months this female panda, Mei Lan, began to look like a familiar black-and-white panda and at four months she made her public debut. Readers will learn about the type of food these bears eat and the contrast between them and other members of the bear family, most of whom are omnivores and eat more meat than panda bears, which seem to exist pretty much on bamboo. Their coloring fits the area where they live in China and provides camouflage for protection. The Chinese characters for Mei Lan's name are presented and readers learn that her name means "Atlanta beauty." The closing illustration of this sleeping beauty is delightful. Reviewer: Marilyn Courtot

Kristin Ostby lives in New York, New York.

Lucia Washburn lives in Petaluma, California.