599.78

This is a nonfiction companion for the Magic Tree House book A Perfect Time for Pandas. It's full of fascinating facts about pandas ("A newborn panda is about as long as a pencil and as light as a stick of butter!") and other endangered species. I love the idea of pairing fiction and nonfiction to fill in the gaps with facts. Someone was thinking! There's also an excellent section at the end called "Doing More Research" that includes books, museums, zoos, DVDs, and websites. ( )

In my opinion, this is a very good book. One of the things I liked best about this book was the plot. This is an informational book all about pandas and other endangered species. I love animals and I really enjoy reading about them. Not only did the book include information about a few species that are endangered, it explained to the reader what being endangered means. “A species is endangered when its numbers have become so small that the species is at risk of becoming extinct (ex-STINKT), or dying out.” The book gives a lot of information about pandas, but does so in a way that is interesting. I also really enjoy the extra-textual features that are in the book. The book includes maps, pictures, definitions, and how to pronounce certain words. For example, the definition of nutrients was given on the same page that the word was used. “Nutrients are the vitamins, minerals, and proteins needed to be healthy.” There were also a lot of real life pictures of pandas in the book, which were interesting to look at. The big idea of this book is to inform readers about pandas and other endangered species. ( )

This book is a non-fiction/ informational chapter book for third to fifth grade. I was very excited to return to my Magic Tree House days! I was definitely a big fan of this series as a child, but I have never read a fact tracker! I really liked this book; it had a lot of content about endangered animals and their habitats and lifestyle yet it was a very easy read. At first it focused on the summary of pandas and why they were endangered, but then I liked how it transitioned to other endangered animals around the world. I love to learn about animals, and I know animals are a popular subject for elementary school students. This is an especially great non-fiction book not only for the information, but because it also has a section in the end informing the students what they could do to help. Getting children involved to better the world is a definite bonus in any book! The main idea of this book is information on endangered animals. ( )

I liked reading this book. The main message is to teach children information about pandas and some other endangered species, and how children can help try to save them. One thing I liked about this book is the style of the text. On the pages, there is the regular text in the chapter, but then on some pages there are sidebars or a conversation between the characters. For example, when the book talks about bamboo, the boy character says to the girl "if you tried to eat bamboo, I bet it would scratch your throat" to which she responded "I know! But pandas have very tough throats so the bamboo doesn't hurt them". I think this gives children a break from the text that is in the standard format and they get to read short sentences that give information related to the chapter. Another thing I liked about this book was the last section on how children can help. Often times, books will just bring up problems in the world and not offer any kind of advice for the kids. This book names ways that children can change small things that can make a big difference. It also gives many more research tools in case the children want to expand their knowledge even further. Some examples they listed include pick up litter, build bird feeders, or saving energy. ( )