Flamingos Are Pretty Funky introduces young readers to flamingos and their fantastic and (truly) fabulous traits. A companion to Wombats Are Pretty Weird, this funny, reader-friendly narrative nonfiction picture book about the natural world features sidebars, comic panels, and extensive back matter.
Flamingos are tall, wading birds known for their bright pink color. Their nests look like tiny volcanoes, and they live in areas that are considered extreme—from nearly boiling bodies of water filled with corrosive chemicals to cold, mountainous regions where ice freezes around their feet. And if you ask their snake friend, Joey, those aren’t the only things that are fabulous about flamingos!
Abi Cushman’s Flamingos Are Pretty Funky contains informative, expressive, and funny illustrations of flamingos in their natural habitats. This enlightening picture book offers an entertaining blend of narration, sidebars, speech balloons, and dialogue and is a refreshing departure from traditional nonfiction. Flamingos Are Pretty Funky serves up a child-friendly guide to the fun and fancy world of flamingos and the mystery, beauty, and science of the natural world.
Back matter includes additional information about flamingos and their habitats.---from the publisher
40 pages 978-0063234444 Ages 4-8
Keywords: flamingos, birds, how things work, narrative nonfiction, Science Curriculum, fun, humor, 4 year old, 5 year old, 6 year old, 7 year old, 8 year old
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“Behold the flamingo, a tall wading bird known for its bright-pink color.”
“On our block all of the guys call her flamingo
'Cause her hair glows like the sun
And her eyes can light the skies.
When she walks she moves so fine
like a flamingo
Crimson dress that clings so tight
She's out of reach and out of sight”
– Manfred Mann (1966)
“Flamingos get their color by eating it. The algae and shrimp they feed on contains orange and red pigments called carotenoids. These chemicals are then absorbed into the flamingo’s feathers, beak and legs, and give them that vibrant pink hue.”
Just imagine if YOU turned the color of your most recent meal. That notion had me thinking about Camilla Cream in David Shannon’s 1998 hoot-of-a-tale A BAD CASE OF STRIPES. What color chemicals might have been in HER latest dinner?
Or imagine if, like a flamingo, you ate your meals with your head upside-down, utilizing a tongue pump, a beak comb, a salt sifter, and a moveable upper bill in order to filter your chow. I dare you to try!
In FLAMINGOS ARE PRETTY FUNKY, author-illustrator Abi Cushman has created an exceptionally fun and appealing nonfiction picture book for middle graders. The primary text is packed with great facts such as the six varieties of flamingos, and their respective ranges around the globe; their habit of “applying” makeup their bodies produce in a gland, as they prepare for impressive mating dances; how the parents puke up and feed their babies bright red “crop milk” which also serves to color the babies (and temporarily depletes the parents’ colors); and their unusual bone structures. (The part of their leg you see them bend is their ankle. Their knees, which bend like ours, are not readily visible.)
On top of all this great info, and on top of the vivid, eye-catching illustrations, there is goofy/cranky banter going on between representatives of each of the six flamingo varieties along with the s-s-silly s-s-snake previously seen in Cushman’s WOMBATS ARE PRETTY WEIRD.
The dialogue is a serious crack-up, but this is no fluff piece. The book concludes with excellent backmatter including a glossary and an impressive list of related resources. This is a first-class resource and a great read.
Recommended by; Richie Partington, MLIS, California USA
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