A POEM | About Keeping Together Mom and Baby

Presentation of pandas by
 the China Books exhibit.

June 1, 2018–At BookExpo in New York's Javits Center.

I've been spending three days with the people who write...
And the people who print books, quite a sight.
There are some who have books in their store just to buy,
And others who lend them, it's easy as pie.
To market, to market, to buy a fat hen, 
BookExpo's the place for the work of the pen.

Panda tag. Not
Paddington Bear.

So that's where I've been, seeing what is for sale,
Whether books or the services that help on this trail.
Just today I went by to the ChinaBooks Booth,
Not seeing it, I thought, would've been très uncouth.
I'm glad that I went... It's my lucky day,
As the calendar shows, in the Chinese way.
I was picked to receive a cute furry panda

Tagged, like Paddington Bear,
but in Chinese... Is it a visa?

A little baby I named Peter... ánd a...
Mom enfolding him – something so rare,
People all envied my lovely pair.
The bears had a tag I was unable to  read.
I'm hoping you'll translate with all due speed.
Paddington Bear had a tag too, such a dear,
Peter and Mom had one stuck in her ear.
Peter's name I knew from the panda of yore [1953].
Tell me his Mom's name – what are friends for?
My new China friends took plenty of pix.
And cameras rolled, with dozens of clicks.

Television and still cams
hum and click.

How cute is that? 
If to the right people these pix wend,
Maybe to New York a real panda they'll send.
So many people gave the pandas their eyes,
Tracee at Schiffer Kids loved my new prize.
A fully grown panda weighs as much as I,
And neither of us slinks around on the sly.
But I confess to a problem that grew as I went,
Soon all my baggage made me walk with back bent.

With Tracee Groff at Schiffer Kids.

I carried these two pandas, lovely they are,
But with backpack and PEN bag, the distances grew far.
My backpack was full of big books to review.
The logistics were hard. What to do?  Who knew?
The only way forward at first it appeared, 
Was to divide up the pair, something I feared.
That way I could fit panda in what I had,
But breaking up a family would be awfully sad.
  Then I remembered,  there are booths in the Hall,

Crisis! My backpack was already full.
What to do??

Where problems they laugh at – they solve them all.
Why not stop by and beg them, and give them a test?
It's worth asking these experts, so I guessed.
No sooner did I decide to look out for some aid,
Than I passed by Publiship, which ships for the trade.
First, they gave me a bag with their name on the side,
A huge help, as both pandas fit snugly inside.

Panda pair bagged, zip-tied and
pandy-backed on my backpack.

Then they gave me as well a ziptie to tack
The bag with the pandas to the pack on my back!!!

Peter and his Mom settle in to
their New York City home. Welcome!

Thank you, Publiship, the experts who know How to ship books and stuff with a long way to go.
They're based in New Jersey, and have served 30 years,
And they are the ones who got us all home with no fears!

Check out this helpful company who gave this story a happy ending–publiship.com. They've shipped 200 million books in the last year, to 109 ports, in 48 countries. Thanks to Carrick Wilkie for his logistical aid. This paean to them was unsolicited.

Related posts: Day 2 of BookExpo

This blog is supported by BoissevainBooks.com, which publishes a book about another bear, Little Old Bear, by award-winning (Newbery honor roll) author-illustrator Hilda van Stockum.