Dear Panda

May 19, 2014
What starts off like a standard getting-used-to-a-new-home story takes a playful turn when a girl named Florence, who is nervous about making friends and having to tell her new classmates about herself, writes a letter of friendship to the panda at the zoo next door—and gets a response. Soon, Florence and Panda are inseparable, climbing trees, playing in the water, and hula-hooping. While Latimer’s Panda doesn’t have quite the sagelike presence of Jon J Muth’s Stillwater, he’s exactly the companion Florence needs, and his cameo appearance at school both wins over Florence’s class and helps her make a (human) friend. Latimer (The Prince’s Breakfast) keeps things interesting in her mixed-media illustrations, playing with a variety of visual perspectives and telegraphing the characters’ emotions, from Panda’s pensive expression as he contemplates how to answer “his first-ever letter” to Florence’s giddy midair leap when she receives his reply. Despite the fantasy trappings of the story, anxious readers should finish the book reassured that making friends can sometimes be surprisingly simple, even without the help of a panda. Ages 3–7.