Xuan Loc Xuan

This is a beautifully illustrated book about a Panda living alone in an enchanted forest. It has a talking tree and a village nearby. The Panda, named Giant is happy with his life. When the people start a fire to burn down the forest for more farmland, Giant and the tree work together to save the forest. This is a great story line to this point. It teaches about animal endangerment and how it happens. Pandas are a very endangered species so this is a timely story. It is surprising how much children love pandas and most of them have probably never seen one. Then, out of the blue, Giant meets his twin brother Bino, who had set out to find him when their mother died. the story just ends abruptly at that point. My grandson thought it was nice that he wouldn't be alone anymore, so maybe children will not find this as much of an issue as I did. The illustrations are stylized and my grandchildren seemed to like them. Of course, my granddaughter kept calling Giant, Dave after the blue panda in one of her favourite cartoons. A nice story for young children. The publisher, Happy Fox Books, provided me with a copy of this book to read. The rating, opinions and ideas are my own.… (más)