PI-SHU

It's difficult to resist the universal appeal of pandas, and this slight tale of a young one and his mother is no exception. Pi-shu, whose name, readers learn from the notes, is an ancient Chinese word for panda and means "brave," has a tiny tail when he is born and is barely the size of one of his mother's eye patches. But he does grow quickly and learns to eat bamboo, climb trees, and observe other animals, like bamboo rats and golden monkeys. Then men encroach upon the forest, chopping trees for their own use, causing Pi-shu and his mother to search for a more remote, safer locale. Butler's prose is somewhat overwrought, with every noun carrying the weight of an adjective, and sometimes two. The pictures are pretty, with the roly-poly pandas in their black and white furriness contrasting with the misty mountains, lush greenery, and snowy hills. Not of the caliber of the venerable Panda of Susan Bonners (1978), and rather heavy-footed in its ecological message, but—oh!—those faces. (Picture book. 4-8)