Friday, June 14, 2013

The Panda Chronicles, Book 2: Wheel of Pandas by Anne Belov

In March at Panda-Monium 2013 in San Diego, Bonnie acquired a copy of The Panda Chronicles, Book 2: Wheel of Pandas by Anne Belov. When she finished joyfully reading, she passed it to me. Silly me left it on my bookshelf until Wednesday night. I laughed through about half of the book then and finished in the morning. Why had I waited so long? Now I want The Panda Chronicles, Book 1: Your Brain on Pandas and look forward to The Panda Chronicles, Book 3: Tails from the Panda Kindergarten. 

The Panda Chronicles series collects comic strips from the website The Panda Chronicles. Belov posts a new strip every Wednesday and sometimes on others, too. In them you follow the exploits of Bob T. Panda, Mehitabel the Cat, Babette de Panda, and the mischievous class of the Panda Kindergarten. Bob T. and Mehitabel report for the Panda Channel, which seems to be a subsidiary of The Institute for Contemporary Panda Satire, which is a couple of rungs below Way Better Than Working, Inc. on the organizational chart found in the front of Book 2.

I don't want to spoil any of the fun, but I will tell you that I enjoyed bits about the panda sex identity misunderstanding at the Atlanta Zoo and about Bob T. wanting to reduce his carbonated footprint. I read with many smiles and finished with a desire for cuppycakes with black and white frosting.

Belov, Anne. The Panda Chronicles, Book 2: Wheel of Pandas. Leaping Panda Press, 2013. 133p. ISBN 9780988388017.

3 comments:

Panda in Chief said...

It's amazing what you can find when you google yourself! I just came across this review, and I must thank you effusively, furrily and in a pandish manner (that means with frosting on my paws!)

Your wonderful review does my heart good, and I just want to let you know that I've just released Book 3 of the Panda Chronicles. I went back to my original title "Nobody Expects the Panda Kindergarten" and it's full of naughty panda fun. Mehitabel has a few...um...unfortunate incidents at the hands of the panda kindergarten, but triumphs in the end.

Thank you again. anything you can do to spread the word of panda satire would be greatly appreciated!

ricklibrarian said...

You're welcome. Bonnie and I are looking forward to the new book, the title of which we approve, being Monty Python fans.

Panda in Chief said...

I'm so glad you like the title. After some struggling within (after my significant other suggested that not enough people would catch the reference) I decided to go with the original title, as it turns out that many of my readers are in fact, Python fans.

I hope to go to Panda-Con again this year. Hope to see you and/or Bonnie there.