Camp Panda: helping cubs return to the wild by Catherine Thimmesh by Marissa Posada

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Justification:I chose this book because I was looking for an award winning nonfiction book. I came across this book on Pandas and decided to read it. I have been curious about the status of the panda species since I knew that they were on the brink of extiction. The cover has a cute baby panda on it, how can any one resist that? Again I needed a nonfiction book on an award list and I found one on pandas.

Evaluation: Since this is an informational book it is understandable that it includes precise language. There are many uses of scientific vocabulary used. There are enough words used to fill one page of a glossary of terms. Although, I think the context clues would help to decipher the majority of the scientific language. Some examples of these words are biodiversity, ecosystem, and ecology. There is a paragraph on page 32 that fully explains how the ecosystems help everyone or can hurt everyone. Allowing the reader to decipher the meaning of the word without having to look it up.

This book has an example of unexpected insight, which is nature conservation. The book covers information about Camp Panda and how they are reintroducing panda cubs to the wild. But there are comments of how people should save all endangered species and their habitats. It specifically points out that humans are to blame for multiple endangered and extinct species. Although the overall theme of the book is that as long as their are still some of the species we can still have them recover. The key is that we recognize that we are making this impact and we change it. There is always still hope.

The illustrations in this book are examples of illustrations reinforcing the text. Most of the illustrations are pictures of the various pandas the text is talking about. Of the pandas shown, Xiang Xiang and Tao Tao were the most often seen since both of them went through the program and had different fates. It also includes illustrations of other endangered animals that are being reintroduced into the wild. Some examples are the red wolf and black-footed ferret. A few of the illustrations have the scientists that are running Camp Panda and those who are also working there. All of the illustrations were accompanied with captions to further explain what was happening or who was in the photo. Again this book was informational and therefore the illustrations were used to reinforce what the text said.

Response:I related to this book because I like pandas. As the book said pandas are one of the icons of conservation and I've been concerned about the species going extinct. This book changed my view in that I was still under the impression that pandas were still not doing well. It was good to learn that the reintroduction programs are working. I enjoyed the text and illustrations as entertainment. Although this is an informational text, it was on a subject that I'm interested in and therefore enjoying to read.I also really enjoyed all of the baby panda pictures.

Conclusion:This book has examples of precise text, unexpected insights, and illustrations that reinforce the text. This is a great book to read if you are interested in how the panda species is doing. This is also a good book to allow younger readers to expand their vocabulary. I recommend this to anyone who likes animal books.

APA Citation: Thimmish, C. (2018). Camp panda: Helping cubs return to the wild. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.