“So is this what they mean by a Win-Win situation?” Josh asked.
“Exactly,” Officer Fallon said. “Now how about I treat us to ice cream cones at Ellie’s?”
“That’s a Josh-Josh situation,” Dink said, smiling at his friends.
A to Z Mysteries
Dear Readers,
So many of you sent in excellent stories for our Alphabet Zweepstakes contest. It was a difficult choice, but I selected Nicholas Oliverio as the winner. His picture is on this page. He sent in a terrific mystery story about a falcon. His winning entry is posted on the Random House Web site at www.randomhouse.com/kids/books/series/az. I loved the story and I am looking forward to meeting Nicholas and his family when we have lunch in New York City.
This book was about one of my favorite animals, the panda. In doing my research, I discovered that pandas are becoming more and more rare as more and more of their habitat is used for other purposes. I am a member of the World Wildlife Fund, which helps save pandas and other animals from extinction. I have supplied the address below in case you’d like to join, too.
I’m thrilled that so many of you are visiting my Web site and sending me e-mail! I try to answer each one as soon as possible.
That’s all for now—I have to get back to work on the next A to Z Mystery.
Happy reading!
Sincerely,
World Wildlife Fund
1250 24th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20037
www.worldwildlife.org
Collect clues with Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose
in their next exciting adventure,
THE QUICKSAND QUESTION
“Wait for me!” Ruth Rose said, kicking off her sandals.
They pushed their feet through the warm, shallow water. Dink could feel the fine sand between his toes. The water was so clear he could see the tiny pebbles on the bottom.
Suddenly Josh stopped. He turned around with panic on his face. “I’m stuck!” he cried.
As Dink watched, Josh started to sink. The water was up to his knees!
“I can’t pull my feet out!” Josh yelled. “I think it’s quicksand!”
A STEPPING STONE BOOK™
Great stories by great authors …
for fantastic first reading experiences!
Grades 1-3
Duz Shedd series
by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
Junie B. Jones series by Barbara Park
Magic Tree House® series
by Mary Pope Osborne
Marvin Redpost series by Louis Sachar
Mole and Shrew books
by Jackie French Koller
Tooter Tales books by Jerry Spinelli
The Chalk Box Kid
by Clyde Robert Bulla
The Paint Brush Kid
by Clyde Robert Bulla
White Bird by Clyde Robert Bulla
NONFICTION
Magic Tree House® Research Guides
by Will Osborne and
Mary Pope Osborne
Grades 2-4
A to Z Mysteries® series by Ron Roy
Aliens for … books
by Stephanie Spinner & Jonathan Etra
Julian books by Ann Cameron
The Katie Lynn Cookie Company series
by G. E. Stanley
The Case of the Elevator Duck
Hannah by Gloria Whelan
Little Swan by Adèle Geras
The Minstrel in the Tower
by Gloria Skurzynski
Next Spring an Oriole
by Gloria Whelan
Night of the Full Moon
by Gloria Whelan
Silver by Gloria Whelan
Smasher by Dick King-Smith
CLASSICS
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
retold by Stephanie Spinner
Dracula retold by Stephanie Spinner
Frankenstein retold by Larry Weinberg
Grades 3-5
FICTION
The Magic Elements Quartet
by Mallory Loehr
Spider Kane Mysteries
by Mary Pope Osborne
NONFICTION
Balto and the Great Race
by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel
The Titanic Sinks!
by Thomas Conklin
a trick of the light.
She screwed up her eyes, then opened them wide, but it was still there. High in the corner of the ceiling a tiny door had opened, and a creature, no more than half an inch high, had climbed through. Toots could see it as clearly as she could see the books on the bookshelves. The creature was crossing the ceiling and making its way toward the brass lamp in the center, leaving a trail of dark, smudgy footprints on the clean white paint as it did so.
Discover a hidden world above and beyond the ceiling of your living room in Toots and the Upside-Down House by Carol Hughes.
Text copyright © 2002 by Ron Roy
Illustrations copyright © 2002 by John Steven Gurney
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright
Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House, Inc.,
New York.
www.randomhouse.com/kids
www.ronroy.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Roy, Ron.
The panda puzzle / by Ron Roy ; illustrated by John Steven Gurney
p. cm. — (A to Z mysteries) “A stepping stone book.”
Summary: Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose investigate the kidnapping
of the new baby panda at the petting zoo.
eISBN: 978-0-307-54029-4
[1. Giant panda—Fiction. 2. Pandas—Fiction. 3. Zoos—Fiction.
4. Mystery and detective stories.] I. Gurney, John, ill. II. Title.
PZ7.R8139 Pan 2002 [Fic]—dc21 2001019541
RANDOM HOUSE and colophon and A TO Z MYSTERIES are registered trademarks and A STEPPING STONE BOOK and colophon and the A to Z Mysteries colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
v3.0