Xander's panda party

This book was adorable and I really liked it. The language was patterned and carried a beat, grabbing the readers attention. For example " Yes, a dandy whoop-de-do! But Xander was the only panda. Just one panda at the zoo." The illustrations, were really what drew me in. The details and expressions

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of each animal really connected to the story. The message of the book was to include everyone. By Xander the panda inviting everyone to his party, no one at the zoo felt left out. "What a ball! Lots of new friends, tall and small!" this shows that Xander is having a great time with everyone at the party whether they are a mammal, bird, or reptile.

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Through out the story you are watching Xander, the only panda in the zoo, try to plan his big birthday party. He has to overcome the difficulties of figuring out who to invite. Xander starts to realize there are so many different types of animals and he doesn't want anyone to feel left out. With

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the help of his new friend Amanda, the salamander, Xander ends up inviting everyone in the zoo.. He makes a new friends and finds out he is no longer the only panda in the zoo.

Xander shows kids that there is always more than one type of person. Also with a little help anyone could throw a big bash of a party. This is just a cute book for kids to read especially if they have an interest in animals.

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When I heard Linda Sue Park talk about her process in creating this book, she said that the phrase Xander's Panda Party was with her for years. The problem for Xander is there's only one panda at the zoo, so he clearly needs a new plan for his party. Then it's a bear party -- but when he invites

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the koala, who worries that she won't be welcome since she's really not a bear, the book takes a quiet subtle turn of teaching animal kingdoms.Then again, it goes much deeper than that because the rhino won't come without his bird, so you're suddenly looking at the concepts of symbiosis and mutualism, where each animal benefits the other. On the theme of social justice, you're also looking at issues of inclusion and exclusion and how that feels for various parties. You can go as deep as you want with this book: Enjoy its sweet simple story about a panda's birthday or explore the deeper meanings and larger concepts.

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This book was really fun. The book had facts about animals an presented them in a way you would know you were learning.The picture were also fun and vivid.

I did not particularly like this book for a few reasons. Though I am an adult, I strangely found the story to be confusing, especially the main message. I believe that the main idea is, “the more the merrier.” Why only play with a few friends when you can play with everyone and have even more

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fun? I do not think children would be able grasp the message of the story by themselves. The book starts off with the issue that Xander the panda is lonely because he is the only panda at the zoo. But as the story progresses, other messages seem to rise, such as other animals getting hurt for not being invited, Xander becoming stressed, and then suddenly another panda arriving. There seem to be too many tangents occurring in this story. I do also think that the book could be conveying the message that initial expectations may not be met, but at the end, better things can happen. I did appreciate the rhymes in this book however. For example, “What to do? His worries grew. Was his party falling through?” The illustrations were also simple and not distracting. They helped get to the main point of the author's writings.

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In my opinion, I thought this was an interesting book. One reason why I liked this book was because of the writing. I personally liked the organization of the book. Although the story is about a panda trying to have a party, there is some informational aspects added to it. The reader is able to

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learn that even though he invited bears, technically the koala bear was then not invited because he is a marsupial and not a bear.

Another reason why I liked this book was because of the illustrations. At a younger age, children tend to love books about animals. Being able to see pictures of animals throughout the book is something that would bring interest to the readers and allow them to want to read more.

The purpose of this book is to help children learn how to differentiate animals and learn about the history of the animals. They learn that crocodiles and birds have the same ancestry and other fascinating information like that.

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This book has a lot of opportunity for students to read with expression by reading punctuation.This is a great book for readers to practice their fluency skills.This was actually a cute little book!

This picture book shows a little with a dilemma, he wants to have a panda party, but there aren't any pandas at the zoo. How does Xander solve his problem?

This was an amazing and cute book for many different reasons. I love that not only was it a fun story and plot, but in the plot there were some facts throughout the reading. For example when inviting the Koala bears, they tell Xander that they are not really bears at all. At the end of the book it

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also had some information on pandas and some other animals that were mentioned in the book which I thought made this book much more than just a fun picture book. Along with the awesome plot, the illustrations were also really cute, the background was very simple but this made the great illustrations of the animals and decorations really stand out on the page. They also had a lot of color throughout the book which made it appealing when reading. I really thought that this fun story of a panda throwing a party and inviting all the people at the zoo was a great book with many different elements that made it so successful.

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Xander's Panda Party begins with Xander wanting to throw a party. He begins with inviting all the bears until koala pointed out he was not really a bear but a marsupial. He changes his invitation to include all mammals until a rhino wants his friend bird to join and Xander changes the invitation

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again. This continues until he has invited all bears, mammals, birds, reptiles, and eventually the entire zoo including the humans to his party! This book is a modern fantasy.

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I loved this book! It was so cute! I loved that the entire book rhymed even though there were more complicated words such as invitation and jubilation. The illustrations in this book were big and bold. They were even part of the text of the book on a few pages. This book was about including

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everyone, no matter what species and type of animal they were. I believe that was the main idea: inclusion. Even though the main character was a panda, I felt as though I could relate to him because he just wanted to be able to include everyone at his party so he kept reissuing invitations to hopefully include everyone. Finally he said that everyone was invited! Even humans. I think this book portrays a wonderful message to children about including others. Because of the rhyming, the language of the book really flowed and was a very easy read. I also found it fascinating that the author included a note of two pages at the end of the book describing why she wrote it. It is definitely one I will stock my classroom library with one day!

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The message shows that when inviting people to an event be very inclusive to friends and not be limited to a specific species. Invite all! The book could be used in Kindergarten through second grade showing students that they should always be fair when inviting classmates to special occasions and

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not leave anyone out that might feel bad.

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In my opinion this is a great book. The plot was cute and playful. Xander the panda slowly invited more and more people to his party with the help of Amanda the salamander because they asked if they could join and everyone became friends. He started with only inviting bears, then mammals, then

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birds, and then creatures, which was everyone. All of the characters were happy with smiling faces. In addition, the illustrations enhanced the story. The water-colored illustrations were pale and dull and used every color on the spectrum to make the story look playful and fun for the readers to look at. The message of the story is to accept everyone and to not exclude someone based on their physical features.

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Who knew pandas could be such party animals? A fun, engaging story. Phelan's brilliant illustrations make the most of the humor and bring depth to the story.

I would use this book to show progression of a story in a clear laid out fashion. I would also use this to show about rhyming, because there is a rhyme on every page. I could also use this book to teach ending punctuation. Grade: k-3

This is cute fiction book that is about a Panda that wants to plan a big party in the zoo. But Xander soon realizes that is hard to plan a party when other animals have certain climate they need to stay in and you cant forget to to invite anyone. Party planning is truly a hard job and Xander has a

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hard time. But at the end Xander gets a gift he has been wanting for a long time and that is another panda to live with him. At the end of this book it has a two page information regarding pandas that would be a good research piece for the students.

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This book is about a panda who is trying to decide who he should invite to his birthday party, based on their animal classification. This is a good example of fantasy because animals can't plan birthday parties or reason which section of the animal kingdom they each fall under.

Xander Panda is planning a party, but then has to change his plans to invite more people and accommodate other animals because he wanted to include everyone. It was fantasy because animals were talking, but the theme was believable. Genre: Fantasy Age Appropriateness: Primary

Xander is planning a party at the zoo but he keeps running into problems with planning it so he can make sure everyone can be included. He gets help from his friend Amanda with planning the party and they get everything worked out. It was said to be the best party the zoo has ever had.
This is a

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good book to use and talk about in class because you can go over inclusion and also planning. You can use it at the begging of the year and show how planning and including everyone throughout the schoiol year and in years to come are both good things to do.

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