Read Online The Panda Puzzle by Ron Roy - Free Book Online

CHAPTER 1
    “I can’t believe Green Lawn has its own pandas,” Ruth Rose said. She held up her dad’s camcorder. “I hope I can get them on videotape!”
    Ruth Rose always dressed in one color. Today, she wore sky blue from head to toe.
    Ruth Rose, her little brother, Nate, and her friends Dink and Josh were visiting the petting zoo. A mother panda and her baby had arrived just the day before!
    All four kids stood in the middle ofa crowd near the panda enclosure. Dink recognized a lot of his friends from school. He waved at Officer Fallon and his grandson, Jimmy.
    Through the skinny rails of the enclosure fence, the kids could see a cave and a pool of water. Bamboo grew beside the cave.
    From his pocket, Dink pulled out a folded paper. It was an issue of
The Panda Paper.
The front-page story was all about how the pandas, Ping and Winnie, had come to Green Lawn. The headline was PETTING ZOO PERFECT PLACE FOR PANDAS !
    “I’m going to ask the editor if I can write a story about the baby panda,” Dink said.
    Josh was chomping on an apple and holding Pal’s leash. “If you do, I’ll draw its picture for you,” he said.

    “Can I play with the panda?” asked Nate.
    “Sorry, Natie,” Ruth Rose said. “Pandas only like to play with
other
pandas.”
    Nate was on tiptoes. “I can’t see,” he complained. “There’s too many big people.”
    “There’s a bench over there,” Dink said. “We can see better if we stand on it.”
    The four kids climbed onto a nearby bench. Now they could see over the crowd. Pal flopped on the lawn with a big sigh and closed his eyes.
    The crowd stood just outside the fence. Off to one side, standing near a microphone, were two men and a woman.
    The kids recognized the woman. Her name was Irene Napper, and sheworked at the petting zoo. She fed the animals and made sure they were safe and comfortable. She was wearing a green uniform with the words PETTING ZOO stitched onto her shirt pocket.
    Next to Irene was a short man with spiky yellow hair. That was Tom Steele, the editor of
The Panda Paper.
    “Who’s the guy wearing the necktie?” Josh asked.
    The man Josh had asked about was very tan. He was whispering something to Irene Napper.
    “That’s Flip Frances,” Dink said. He showed Josh a picture in
The Panda Paper.
“His grandmother gave the money to Green Lawn to build this park.”
    Just then, Flip Frances spoke into the microphone. “Can you all hear me?” he asked.
    Ruth Rose turned on the camcorder and aimed it toward the microphone.

    “Hi, everyone, I’m Flip Frances,” he said. “As many of you know, it was my grandmother, Winifred Frances, who made Panda Park possible. Granny Win would be happy that you all came to meet little Winnie. And I’m pleased that her money went to such a good cause.”
    He turned to Irene Napper. “Irene is taking good care of our new arrivals,” he said, handing her the microphone.
    “Thanks, Flip,” Irene said into the mike. “I just want to say that I’ve loved getting to know little Winnie. She’s a happy, playful baby.”
    Irene passed the mike to Tom Steele. “Hello, everyone,” the editor said. “As you know,
The Panda Paper
has a very small staff—me! I could use some help. I’d love to print your stories, poems, or pictures about pandas.”
    Tom Steele grinned. “But I can’t pay you anything!”
    Everyone in the crowd laughed.
    Just then, a black-and-white face appeared inside the cave’s entrance.
    The crowd quieted. Slowly, the mother panda moved into the sunlight. Her head swiveled around and she lifted her nose into the air. Suddenly she charged the fence and threw her body against the metal rails.
    Tom Steele, Irene Napper, and Flip Frances leaped back. People at the front of the crowd jumped back, too.
    “What’s wrong with her?” Ruth Rose asked, catching it all on videotape.
    Ping stared through the bars of the fence. After a minute, she waddled back into her cave.
    A man in a green uniform hurried