To try and expand my reading and to have some sort of order to it I started a reading challenge of a book per letter of the alphabet. It hit a few bumps (it is not as easy as you might think) but really hit hard with the letters Q and X. I did a little research and came up with Xander’s Panda Party for X (Q will be Queer Ducks by Eliot Schrefer. Hopefully). I thought, “Pandas?” That’s good. A party? Okay, that could be fun. Author? Linda Sue Park. Okay now it is a MUST read. I mean even if I am not hugely in love with something she has written, I enjoy reading it. Things are cute and even serious subjects are not too intense. Then I saw the illustrator, Matt Phelan. “Ding! Ding! Winner!” As you cannot go wrong with both Park and Phelan headlining this book.
Which turned out to be a cute book. It is a sweet book. It is a little silly book. It is a story about a party for one that turns into the biggest block party a panda could hope for. Xander’s dilemma is that they are the only panda in the zoo. So, he can’t have a Panda Party. Then when changing it to a Bears Party, they learn not all animals called “bears” are actual bears. And this goes on with all types of animals and road blocks until the perfect solution is found.
With sparse text, the illustrations take up a bit of the burden of moving the story along. But they too are not overly abundant. Nothing is lacking with colors, details or information, but the pages are not crowded either. There are great colors that are not too bold; there are good details that allow you to see what is going on and how the solution comes to be. It is overall, a cozy book and makes my Alphabet Book list almost complete.