Item - Little Panda Gets Lost

I like the way that both choices in the book lead the character, who is lost in a store, to talk to a store employee. I wish that the story could somehow have tried to teach the lesson of not getting lost in the first place... but that's something the parent will have to add.

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Each installment in the original Your First Adventure series expands into the early childhood experience more, and Little Panda Gets Lost creates stakes as significant as any in the previous five books. You are a young panda shopping in a store with your mom when you drift from her side to browse the toy aisle. When you want to return to your mom, you can't find the way. Is it best to stay where you are, or go looking for her?

Park yourself in the toy department to wait, and you'll recall your mom has a pink dress on. The first flash of pink that rounds the corner is worn by a baby in a stroller, and the next is a bubblegum bubble blown by a boy strolling along. After that comes a pink hair bow between the ears of Ms. Cow, a sales clerk; she isn't your mom but can help the two of you reunite. If you went searching for your mom from the first, you are understandably distracted by worry. You knock into a family of alligators on their way down the escalator, accidentally untie a bunch of helium balloons, and collide with Mr. Deer, a sales clerk carrying an armful of shoeboxes. You seem no closer to finding your mother, but Mr. Deer can do something about that.

At any age, separation from loved ones is scary. Your parents, siblings, or friends define your comfort zone and a large part of who you are; how do you orient if that's gone? Some of us react passively, standing pat and hoping the status quo returns, while others actively pursue what we lost. Little Panda Gets Lost reassures children that at this early stage in life, at least, the future doesn't ride on a single choice made in the heat of emotion. What you decide shapes the course of your immediate adventure, but either way you make it back to your mom. So relax, and try to have a bit of fun even in the midst of a stressful scenario.

I love the goodhearted messages imparted by Your First Adventure, and Little Panda Gets Lost is one of the best. The lesson is worthy of reflection for readers of any age, and Karen Lee Schmidt's illustrations offer old-fashioned loveliness and plenty to look at beyond the main story. Marcia Leonard is one of my favorite gamebook authors, and I wish more young readers knew the Your First Adventure series.

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