Lihua never could have imagined that the birth of a little brother would end the life she knew.
Raised in a poor country village, Lihua prayed her parents would have a son to bring peace and balance to the family. But she did not foresee how living in such poverty would force her parents to face a terrible choice they once made that would now cost Lihua everything.
Suddenly told to leave her home, Lihua begins a treacherous journey alone. After being attacked on the road the first day, an unlikely hero comes to her aid: a panda she decides to call Panpan. Bound together for love and survival, Lihua and Panpan travel together through the mountains and forest of western China as Lihua struggles to find her new place in the world.
A Girl and her Panda is part the Animal Companion series, but each book is a stand-alone novel with new characters and adventures.
“You’re it!” one of the kids yelled as she caught sight of Lihua.
Lihua squealed with laughter as she stood up from her hiding place and looked for the other children. She easily found two other girls who couldn’t stop laughing. They jumped up and playfully fought over who would actually be it. The girl who had found Lihua joined the fray, and soon the four of them were fighting and laughing at the same time.
“I think everyone is it!” Lihua said. There was a momentary pause before all of the children burst into screams and they all ran in different directions through the forest looking for whoever had not yet been found.
After a moment, Lihua stopped to catch her breath and found herself completely alone. She turned around and took in the sight of the tall bamboo trees that creaked as they slowly swayed in the breeze. The bamboo forest was so thick, it was nearly dark here, even though it was only mid-afternoon.
She heard a rustling to her left. She took a cautious step toward it.
“Hello?” she called. “Who’s there? I won’t hurt you.” She hoped it was a panda. She had spent her whole life at the edge of a bamboo forest, west of the Dayong Mountains in eastern Bashu. Her grandmother had told her many stories about the fat, fluffy bears that roamed all over the mountains in her girlhood, but Lihua had never seen one.
“The black-footed ghost of the forest,” her grandmother called them. They were said to roam the woods, eating anything they could find, even iron pots or bamboo chopsticks. If anything went missing, a panda was surely to blame.
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Chinese
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Unavailable for translation.
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Dutch
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Already translated.
Translated by Jason Matthys
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Italian
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Already translated.
Translated by Fiorenza Spuria
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Portuguese
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Already translated.
Translated by Giovanna Detter
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Spanish
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Already translated.
Translated by Sergio Hernandes
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