In the forests of China in ancient times, a small girl's sacrifice for a friendly white bear brings about the appearance of the first pandas.

Part of a series specially written for the National Literacy Strategy, this is a collection of stories, poems and other pieces by many different authors. Also available is a corresponding textbook designed to help readers to get the most out of the anthology.

How much do we really know about the species that make up the natural world? All over the world, biodiversity is gravely threatened – by overfishing, habitat destruction, pollution and climate change. Yet life on Earth has previously experienced five episodes of mass extinction, and nature has repeatedly proved itself to be a resilient, regenerative force. In this fascinating book, ecologist Dr. Ken Thompson surveys the Earth's biodiversity, its origins and some of the threats it currently faces. Thought-provoking and deeply engaging, Do We Need Pandas? offers a non-technical overview of our ecosystems and expands on the causes and consequences of biodiversity loss. Importantly, it also examines what we should be doing to secure the survival not only of the species with which we share the planet, but of ourselves – and whether we need to be more concerned about ecosystems as a whole than about iconic species such as the orangutan and giant Panda.

In this magnificent, heart-wrenching book--hailed Best Book of 1993 by the New York Times Book Review and USA Today--acclaimed naturalist and National Book Award winner George B. Schaller documents the plight of the mysterious panda--and urgently calls for the compassion needed to save these gentle animals from extinction. Includes a new Preface for this edition. 27-color plates.

"A timeless tale about a beloved animal One of the world's most beloved and reclusive animals, the panda is almost as mysterious today as it was thousands of years ago. The original Chinese folk tale of how the panda came to have its distinctive black-and-white coat is a story of love, bravery and the sacrifice of a young shepherdess. Illustrator Song Nan Zhang has drawn upon his experiences touring the silk road region of Tibet to create the gloriously colourful illustrations that depict the ancient Wolong Valley in Sichuan province. As retold by master historian Linda Granfield, "The Legend of the Panda is augmented with fascinating information about panda bears and the efforts to save them. A book as beautiful as it is informative.

"In August 2015, zookeepers at the National Zoo in Washington, DC, were thrilled to spot a tiny shadow on an ultrasound. For a species as rare as the giant panda, every new cub is cause for celebration. Zoo staff monitored mother Mei Xiang, and within days a newborn appeared, weighing in at just one third of a pound. While Mei Xiang cradled her vulnerable infant, zookeepers monitored the pair day and night through cameras in the panda den, and some two million viewers logged on to the zoo website. First Ladies Michelle Obama and Peng Liyuan hosted a ceremony to announce the cub's name: Bei Bei, meaning "precious treasure" in Mandarin Chinese. An instant celebrity, the cub captured hearts all over the world. But pandas in zoos are considered emissaries from the People's Republic of China, the only country where they live in the wild. Four years after his birth in America, Bei Bei would embark on an important new mission."--

Learn how the extraordinary impact of the panda—from obscurity to fame—is also the story of China’s transition from shy beginnings to center stage. Giant pandas have been causing a stir ever since their formal scientific discovery just over 140 years ago. Yet in spite of humankind’s evident obsession with the giant panda, it is only in the last few decades that scientific research has begun to show us what this mysterious, frequently misunderstood creature is really like. Henry Nicholls uses the rich and curious history of the giant panda to do several things: to ponder our changing attitudes toward the natural world; to offer a compelling history of the conservation movement; and to chart the rise of modern China on its journey to become the self-sufficient, twenty-first-century superpower it is today.

“Weepingly funny.” —The Wall Street Journal “Delightful.” —BuzzFeed “Charmed my socks off.” —David Arnold, New York Times bestselling author of Kids of Appetite and Mosquitoland Four starred reviews for this incisive, laugh-out-loud contemporary debut about a Taiwanese American teen whose parents want her to be a doctor and marry a Taiwanese Ivy Leaguer despite her squeamishness with germs and crush on a Japanese classmate. At seventeen, Mei should be in high school, but skipping fourth grade was part of her parents’ master plan. Now a freshman at MIT, she is on track to fulfill the rest of this predetermined future: become a doctor, marry a preapproved Taiwanese Ivy Leaguer, produce a litter of babies. With everything her parents have sacrificed to make her cushy life a reality, Mei can’t bring herself to tell them the truth—that she (1) hates germs, (2) falls asleep in biology lectures, and (3) has a crush on her classmate Darren Takahashi, who is decidedly not Taiwanese. But when Mei reconnects with her brother, Xing, who is estranged from the family for dating the wrong woman, Mei starts to wonder if all the secrets are truly worth it. Can she find a way to be herself, whoever that is, before her web of lies unravels? From debut author Gloria Chao comes a hilarious, heartfelt tale of how, unlike the panda, life isn’t always so black and white.

Get to grips with pandas—a versatile and high-performance Python library for data manipulation, analysis, and discovery Key FeaturesPerform efficient data analysis and manipulation tasks using pandasApply pandas to different real-world domains using step-by-step demonstrationsGet accustomed to using pandas as an effective data exploration toolBook Description Data analysis has become a necessary skill in a variety of positions where knowing how to work with data and extract insights can generate significant value. Hands-On Data Analysis with Pandas will show you how to analyze your data, get started with machine learning, and work effectively with Python libraries often used for data science, such as pandas, NumPy, matplotlib, seaborn, and scikit-learn. Using real-world datasets, you will learn how to use the powerful pandas library to perform data wrangling to reshape, clean, and aggregate your data. Then, you will learn how to conduct exploratory data analysis by calculating summary statistics and visualizing the data to find patterns. In the concluding chapters, you will explore some applications of anomaly detection, regression, clustering, and classification, using scikit-learn, to make predictions based on past data. By the end of this book, you will be equipped with the skills you need to use pandas to ensure the veracity of your data, visualize it for effective decision-making, and reliably reproduce analyses across multiple datasets. What you will learnUnderstand how data analysts and scientists gather and analyze dataPerform data analysis and data wrangling in PythonCombine, group, and aggregate data from multiple sourcesCreate data visualizations with pandas, matplotlib, and seabornApply machine learning (ML) algorithms to identify patterns and make predictionsUse Python data science libraries to analyze real-world datasetsUse pandas to solve common data representation and analysis problemsBuild Python scripts, modules, and packages for reusable analysis codeWho this book is for This book is for data analysts, data science beginners, and Python developers who want to explore each stage of data analysis and scientific computing using a wide range of datasets. You will also find this book useful if you are a data scientist who is looking to implement pandas in machine learning. Working knowledge of Python programming language will be beneficial.