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, and two page spread of how the canal works.(Picture 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)

Conejtio, "little bunny," goes to visit his auntie, dancing and leaping all the way. But on the way home, how can Conejito avoid the fox, tiger and lion who want to eat him for lunch? (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)

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)

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)