What Is the Panama Canal?

What was...?

by Janet B. Pascal, Tim Foley (Illustrations)

Before 1914, traveling from the East Coast to the West Coast meant going by land across the entire United States. To go by sea involved a long journey around South America and north along the Pacific Coast.

But then, in a dangerous and amazing feat of engineering, a 48-mile-long channel was dug through Panama, creating the world’s most famous shortcut: the Panama Canal!

Genres: History, Nonfiction, School, Geography, Childrens, Historical, Education

112 pages, Paperback

First published June 26, 2014

About the author

Janet Pascal, author of many YA biographies and Viking’s senior copy-editor, lives in New York, New York.

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. This book was very nicely done! It's well researched and well written. I learned a lot about the Panama Canal and all the blood, sweat, and tears that was involved in crafting this waterway. An engineering triumph of brawn and brains, indeed.

[Christina Close · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was impressed by how well this book was written. Pascal had to have done her research for this book to have been this great.

The artwork was amazing and really will draw in the children audience plus the teen and adult audience who are interested in how the Panama Canal came to be.

There were moments that I was like eek, let's not make American seem like it was the only reason that Panama got it's canal. The workers who helped form the canal should have really gotten the credit, but that isn't the authors fault, that's just how it is in books based on historical events. We praise the countries not the people.

[Lorraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was inspired by my second cousin to read these books, written for children, but great for adults too!
Going into the book, I didn't know much at all about the the Panama Canal and really enjoyed learning the history behind it.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was actually fairly impressed by the account presented. Given that it is written as a children's book, I was happy to see that the U.S. wasn't given a free pass and highlighted as the glorious country that gave Panama a canal. I thought Pascal did a better job of explaining the tension and racism that went on during the building than she did on the state of affairs after the canal was open and full on rioting occurred. Overall, I found the book to be insightful for the target audience.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice book about a miraculous feat. Truly a modern seventh wonder for humanity.

[Erin Becker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite a few hard to stomach call outs to American exceptionalism ("America made the dream com true!"), this is one of my favorite in the WhoHQ canon so far. the author covered the long history of colonial desire to bypass Cape Horn and the harsh Panamanian isthmus, from the early 1500s to present. Different schemes for crossing the isthmus were discussed in some detail. I even finally understand how the lock system works (which I've had explained to me several times in my childhood). The author could have done a better job calling out colonialism and imperialism (especially around the eradication of malaria and yellow fever), but did at least touch on how racist policies impacted the canal workers. Like all books in the series (although the new ones from 2020-2021 are getting better), this needs some contextualization for young audiences. Still highly recommend.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

'What Is the Panama Canal' was informative and a quick read, and it had some interesting details that it pointed out, and even one that was funny towards the end, at least in my opinion. It wasn't my favorite, though that isn't too surprising considering that the genre of the book isn't the thing that I seem to run towards like my life depends on it. If this is the sort of book you enjoy, it is informative, and not too dry, something pretty crucial for me in books about historical events and characters.

[Stacy · Rating 5 out of 5]

My children and I love the “What Is” series. This book is no exception! This book is a very comprehensive look at the history of building the Panama Canal. My 4th and 6th grade boys enjoyed reading this with me. I had no idea it was so difficult building this canal. I was also surprised how much of a problem diseases were in this area but it does make sense! This book was a very educational overview for all of us!

[CL]

The French engineer who built the Suez Canal started building the Panama Canal, but the company went bankrupt after numerous unexpected difficulties in the building. Then the US took over. They wanted control of the Canal Zone but Columbia refused to give it to them. So the US supported Panama’s succession from Columbia. Panama gave control to the US in perpetuity (control was handed back to Panama by Jimmy Carter). The Panama Canal was finally completed just before WWI.

[Sondra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book and I learned so much. I liked how this book didn’t completely whitewash the history. I also think there are opportunities to dive deeper into this text and explore different topics such as race and culture, environmental concerns, disease, historical context, so much.

[North Landesman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Big disagreement here. I an adult, thought it was excellent, especially the part about how the defeated Yellow Fever and figured out how to stop the mosquitos. My seven year old son found it boring. Four starts is a compromise rating here.

[Brady H · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was a pretty good book. It was pretty interesting. I recomened this book to anyone who like who was books.

[Manybooks2read · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned so much from this book on the Panama Canal.

[Drmkk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fascinating. I didn't know the story of the Panama Canal - what an amazing feat! Interesting read.

[Carol Taylor burlew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! Part of an amazing series of NF for middle elementary school readers!

[Mrs V L Williams, Mr T P Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great, easy overview

Anyone visiting the Panama Canal should read this brief history. A good overview of the Panama Canal for any visitors

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read with S, my curious non-fiction lover.

[Kyra Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great history book for children about the construction of the Panama Canal.

[Gideon · Rating 5 out of 5]

There was a very detailed map of Panama in it.

[Leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read many books in this series, this one I actually learned some new facts from and will recommend to my students who are interested in learning more about the Panama Canal.

[Janice · Rating 4 out of 5]

How the Panama Canal came to be and how America became involved. Why there were so many deaths. Considered one of the wonders of the modern world.

[Tracy Mallett]

This is a juvenile book, but it was very informative and a good start for my research on the Panama Canal. I'm cruising through there in December of 2022

[Alaina · Rating 4 out of 5]

We read this for school. It was very informative. It reminds me that nothing grand can happen it seems without the loss of life.

[Cathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this series. Lots of pictures, lots of information in an easy to read format. Excellent for my 8 & 9 year olds.

[October Norris · Rating 1 out of 5]

not a big fan of informational's that much unless it's about something I'm really into. I had to read this in a silly voice to get through this.

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

For our homeschool: Very informative but not all that thrilling.. not bad for a non-fiction and we both learned a ton about the building of the panama canal.

[Denise conover · Rating 5 out of 5]

we are going to see the canal.

I enjoyed reading about this. It should be a magnificent trip. Date of cruise January 29, 2024 on the ruby princess.

[MJ Belo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book wasn't as fun. It was mostly about the construction, not interesting facts.

[Ryan Stice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice simple overview before taking a trip through the Panama canal.

[Bridget · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much information in this little book. My favorite What Is/Who Is book so far.