Baby book review: The Panda Problem by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by Hannah Marks

Baby librarian Tilly and her mum Jen review the hilarious picture book The Panda Problem by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by Hannah Marks.

Tilly reviews The Panda Problem

This book is okay. I like the pictures a lot but I don’t really understand the story. It’s a bit confusing. I like the panda! This one doesn’t look as grumpy as the panda from the other book, Please, Mr. Panda (A Board Book) (reviewed here). This panda looks pretty happy, actually. But he doesn’t have any doughnuts. And there’s a spider in this book too, which is cool. He’s bigger than the spiders in my other books. Usually they’re little and almost hidden (but I’m good at finding them and making Mummy sing Itsy Bitsy Spider) but in this book the spider is bigger. Oh! And penguins. Penguins are good too. I guess maybe I do like this book after all. But mostly because the pictures are good.

Jen reviews The Panda Problem

I love this book! It is a marvellously funny book that is a meta-celebration of story-telling. What do you need to tell a good story? Well, you need a problem. But the problem for this narrator here is that the panda doesn’t HAVE a problem. He’s perfectly happy in his bamboo grove, munching away. The narrator and panda negotiate their way through the book, creating problems, and we are taken on a delightful journey looking at the components of a good story. I also love the coloured-pencil drawing illustrations in this.