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Review by Dora M. Guzmán

DESCRIPTION OF THE BOOK (from the front cover): Red Panda and Moon Bear are the defenders of their community! Dressed in their magic hoodies, these brave siblings rescue lost cats, scold bullies, and solve problems, all before Mami and Papi get home. But lately… the mysteries have been EXTRA mysterious. All of RP and MB’s powers may not be enough to handle ghosts, evil robots, alien invaders, and portals in space-time! It’ll take all their imagination- and some new friends- to uncover the secret cause behind all these mysteries…before the whole world comes to an end!

MY TWO CENTS: A humorous tale of two Latinx siblings fighting crime, while at the same time, making sure they do not get in trouble. Red Panda and Moon Bear are each filled with positivity which reassures their community members that they will get the job done! Of course, Red Panda and Moon Bear take all their mysteries seriously, but as an adult reader, I often laughed at the quirky characters and the sibling bond. Each mystery, no matter how small, is met with enthusiasm and a teamwork approach, especially when they have to make their own time machine. It is this same bond that spreads positivity throughout all of their monstrous and robotic encounters in this much needed graphic novel.

Red Panda and Moon Bear is a long-awaited, action-packed graphic novel, now in English and Spanish. My bilingual, bicultural readers are obsessed with early graphic novels filled with humor, and I cannot wait to get this book in their hands!

TEACHING MOMENTS:

Many of these teaching moments can be implemented in a grades K-5 setting.

• A writing mentor text for teaching dialogue, onomatopoeia, and punctuation
• A reading mentor text for teaching prediction and character development
• An inspiration for students to create own graphic novel
• A read aloud for all ages!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR-ILLUSTRATOR: Jarod Roselló is a Cuban-American cartoonist, writer, and educational researcher from Miami, Florida. He teaches comics and fiction in the creative writing program at the University of Southern Florida in Tampa. Check out his website (https://www.jarodrosello.com/) and follow him on Twitter @jarodrosello

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ABOUT THE REVIEWER: Dora M. Guzmán is a bilingual reading specialist for grades K-5 and also teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Children’s Literature and Teaching Beginning Literacy. She is also a current doctoral student in NLU’s  EDD Teaching and Learning Program with an emphasis on Reading, Language, and Literacy.  When she is not sharing her love of reading with her students, you can find her in the nearest library, bookstore, or online, finding more great reads to add to her never-ending “to read” pile!

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