Nonfiction Monday: Round-Up & Pandas

Pandas must be the only animal whose adult evolutionary strategy is cuteness. (Well, other than Ashton Kutcher.) They live on bamboo — and only bamboo — which apparently has all the nutritional value of pork rinds. They also weigh two hundred pounds, need a decent-sized range, and sport highly visible markings. No doubt this species would have died out long, long ago if people didn’t protect them because they were just so darn adorable.

How Many Baby Pandas? by Sandra Markle, is a young readers’ introduction to pandas and how people are helping them at Wolong Giant Panda Breeding Center in China. We start with one panda at birth — about six inches long, weighing four ounces, and looking like a pink rat. We follow pandas’ growth in the center and learn facts about the animals along the way. The photographs of pandas wrestling with each other and holding their own baby bottles are as sweet as they sound. Regardless of the title, the counting aspect of the book is certainly secondary. At the end, there are extra facts, glossary, bibliography, websites, and donation information. Good for early elementary school readers or preschoolers who want to learn about animals. Especially cute animals.

Nonfiction Monday Round-up is here today, so leave links in the comments and I’ll update throughout the day.

Edited to Add: Funny story — I told my teen the Ashton Kutcher line yesterday, and she didn’t think it was that funny. I explained it, telling her that it’s only because he’s cute that he has a career, because he hasn’t really done anything. So, today I see an article in The Washington Post about celebrities who are famous for being famous. At the end of the article the primo example is named: Ashton Kutcher.

9:00 a.m. Round-Up

• The Tiger Has a Toothache over at In Need of Chocolate. (How perfect is that?)
  
  
• Mother Osprey: Nursery Rhymes for Buoys and Gulls at Wild About Nature.
  
  
• The Day Glo Brothers over at Simply Science. (Didn’t they open for the Jonas Brothers?)
  
  
• Bubble Homes and Fish Farts over at Fuse #8.
  
  
• How to Survive in Antarctica at Abby (the) Librarian.
  
  
• Discussion of Dieppe: Canada’s Darkest Day of World War II with author and historian Hugh Brewster at Just One More Book, plus bonus nonfiction tracks of Faces of the Moon and Neo Leo: The Ageless Ideas of Leonardo da Vinci.
  
  
• Just the Right Size at 100 Scope Notes.
  
  
• Which Way to the Wild West? at Jean Little’s Library. (I’m guessing... west.)
  

Noon Round-Up

• Don’t Squash that Bug! at A Patchwork of Books.
  
  
• Major Taylor, Champion Cyclist at Lori Calabrese Writes!
  
  
• Amazing Animals: Rainforest Romp at Wendie’s Wanderings.
  
  
• Unite or Die at Jen Robinson’s Book Page.
  
  
• Follow the Money! at Reading Tub. (I’m trying, Terry, but the money keeps getting away.)
  
  
• Pharoh’s Boat at Miss Rumphius Effect.
  
  
• New ABC books at and by Laura Salas. (I’m partial to the title A is for Arrrr! A Pirate Alphabet.)
  

4:00 p.m. Round-Up

• Life in the Boreal Forest at Bookends. (Doesn’t that sound pleasantly cool during an August heat wave?)
  
  
• A round-up within a round-up with Finding Truth, Then and Now, 14 Cows for America, Truth You Can Trust, and Save This Superstar! all at I.N.K. — Interesting Nonfiction for Kids. (Sorry I missed you earlier.)
  

7:00 p.m. Round-Up

• The Frog Scientist at Biblio File, who adds, “MR! You live in DC! Baby pandas don’t look like a pink rat, they’re THE SIZE OF A STICK OF BUTTER!”
  

HA! (I respond.) I actually had that phrase instead of the pink rat, but I didn’t think anyone would get it! Of course, four years ago everyone in the DC area heard that the new baby panda was the size of a stick of butter so many times that “ButterStick” was one of the suggested names. (They went with Tai Shan.)