By Alicia Potter
Illustrated by Melissa Sweet
Alfred A. Knopf, 2012
$16.99, ages 5-8, 40 pages
Before anyone had heard of "panda-monium," the excitement that surrounds seeing pandas.
Before many Americans had even imagined that the gamboling, masked panda of legend was real.
There was a tea gown designer who, despite knowing little about animals, set off for China to bring a panda to America: not in a cage but curled up in her arms.
In this charming historical picture book, author Alicia Potter tells the story of Ruth Harkness, a Manhattan widow who set off on a journey no one thought she could make.
Her mission was to find a mythical beast known as a panda and show the world that it really existed.
In doing so, many conservationists say, she made us want to love them and spurred a worldwide effort to stop hunting them.
