Before you visit the Panama Canal, read the exciting story of this engineering feat – lock and lakes design, how the canal was constructed, building the three sets of locks on the Atlantic and Pacific, damming the Chagres River, digging the Culebra Cut, and the Panama Canal today. (Illustrated chapter book)

The ingenious title (a palindrome) sets the scene for this documentary about the Panama Canal – from de Lesseps, who tried and failed, to Teddy Roosevelt, the American president who took up the difficult task, and the inventive engineers and workers who made it happen. Fabulous black and white historical footage makes the canal construction come alive. Good for older kids. (Video – DVD)

Meet the real pirates of the Spanish Main, the sea robbers who manned the quick, small schooners that eluded the big frigates, merchant vessels, and heavy galleons. Fascinating facts about life at sea, pirate attacks on prize ships, and buccaneers in the Caribbean. Super illustrations. (Picture book)

Essential guide to pirates – buccaneers such as Henry Morgan who sacked Panama, weapons (cannons and cutlasses) and pirate treasure. Detailed photographs, artifacts and models of treasure ships. (Picture book)

Get to know the rain forests and unusual animals of Panama – harpy eagles (the national bird of Panama), tamarinds, two-toed and three-toed sloths, night monkeys, anteaters, ocelots, poison dart frogs, narrated by Jeff Corwin, host of Animal Planet. (Chapter book, photographs)

Kids can read for themselves about the tropical rain forest and the fascinating trees and plants in the canopy and understory, plus animals you'll see in Panama, including the three-toed sloth, blue morpho butterflies, jaguars, tapirs, toucans and bats.
(Easy reader)

Loggerhead turtles swim year round in the waters around Panama, and here's a delightful story of one baby turtle, "not much bigger than a bottle top." The tiny turtle outgrows her underwater nursery, wanders far and wide, leaving no trace, until one summer night she returns to the beach where she was born. (Picture book)

Jungle Song
Miriam Moss, Adrienne Kennaway

A baby tapir follows the silky spider into rain forest, where a sloth snoozes in the trees, leaf cutter ants scissor their way through jungle plants, a long-nosed bat hangs upside down, and a striking blue butterfly gently lands on a bright green leaf. Adorable watercolor illustrations. (Picture book)

A rhyming story with gorgeous collages takes you into the tropical rainforest. “Over in the jungle, in a bromeliad heaven, lived a poison dart frog, and her little froggies seven.” A delight for little ones. (Picture book)