Panda

by Susan Bonners

Describes the life of a giant panda from her birth until, at six years old, she is fully grown and awaiting the birth of her first cub.

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

So yes, albeit that Susan Bonners’ 1978 picture book Panda does a generally detailed and descriptive enough job showing the life of a female giant panda (from her birth as a tiny and utterly helpless cub until when at the age of about six she is ready to breed and produce her own offspring), and that the accompanying watercolour pictures are definitely a visual delight (and certainly do demonstrate that Susan Bonners is not just a decent writer but also a wonderful and talented illustrator), I do have to admit that there are some major informational gaps encountered in Panda and which I for one do tend to find rather majorly problematic, hugely disappointing if not actually totally infuriating.

For even though Panda was published in 1978, even then, even in the late 1970s it was in fact already generally publicly and ecologically known that Giant Pandas were facing increasing conservation pressures due to in particular habitat destruction, and I therefore do consider it totally and absolutely academically unacceptable and socially, politically irresponsible that NONE of these issues are even remotely touched upon by Susan Bonners, that her presented text in Panda just seems to completely ignore the fact and sad truth that due to the Giant Panda’s rather restrictive diet of bamboo, the logging etc. of China’s bamboo forests is causing starvation and the threat of extinction for them, for Giant Pandas. And come on, since in 1977 in a unit on China, my grade five teacher was already mentioning to us that Giant Pandas were increasingly in trouble and obviously in need of protection, Susan Bonners really should have also been textually pointing this out in her Panda, and indeed, the lack of any and all mentions of this really does both hugely rub me the wrong proverbial way and also in my opinion seriously lessens the inherent and potential teaching and learning value of Panda to the point that I would really only recommend this book with huge academic reservations and caveats (and especially so since there are also and equally no source acknowledgements, that there are bibliographical details whatsoever included in Panda).

[Carol Royce Owen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Details a panda's life from birth until maturity. Does not deal with any aspects of panda endangerment.

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

As the other reviews state, this book does not deal with the endangered status of giant pandas so if that’s what you’re looking for, this isn’t the book for you. But if you’re looking for an engaging, informative book about pandas, I recommend this one 100%. It’s a beautiful book, written in story form that provides factual information about pandas and their life cycle. It’s engaging for all ages and even though the factual information feels secondary to the story of this little panda cub, I learned several things I had never heard about giant pandas before.

[Rachael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful art