Ping Ping Panda: The Power of Personal Responsibility is the sequel to Bernadette Shih’s extremely successful children’s book Ling Ling: The Most Beautiful Giant Panda in the World. Stephen Smoke is the co-author.
In the first book, Ling Ling is a young female panda who is proud of being “The Most Beautiful Panda in the World.” As with many young ladies, she is not satisfied with her looks. One day she manages to hide the black patches around her eyes–with disastrous results. Her friends–Owl, Firefly, Mouse, Frong and Sloth–want nothing to do with her.
Everything turns out all right in the end and Ling Ling learns that she is loved not for her looks but for who she is.
Ping Ping Panda:The Power of Personal Responsibility is a story about a panda in Western China, near Tibet, who learns the value of personal responsibility. When his father gives him enough bamboo shoots to “spend” however he wishes for the entire summer, Ping Ping spends all his bamboo shoots one day at a carnival with his friends. When his father tells him he will give him no more bamboo shoots that summer, Ping Ping is angry and sad because he can no longer go to the Big Concert with his friends at the end of the summer. But Ping Ping’s father allows Ping Ping to work on the family’s land and in the village, for five bamboo shoots per day. By the end of the summer Ping Ping has earned enough bamboo shoots to go to the Big Concert…and take his friends (whose parents will not give them any more bamboo shoots) as well.
Well-known children’s book illustrator Diane Lucas did the paintings, and graphic designer Margaret Khai designed the book.
Ping Ping Panda will be available in the spring of 2013. Click here if you would like to be notified by email when the book is published.