Maybe We Are Flamingos
by: Safari Sue Thurman; Illustrated by Kevin Scott Collier
Published by: Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc.
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Reviewed by Harold N. Walters
As I read this book I couldn’t help hearing this old saw in my noggin: Birds of a feather flock together. Cliché as it might be, the saying has some bearing on this wonderfully pink picture book.
Flora and Fernando hatch into a flamingo family. As do the young of any species, the first thing they do is nap. Soon though they realize they are not like other flamingos that are as pink as bundles of insulation. Flora and Fernando are white!
Before jumping to hasty conclusions, the baby flamingos decide to sleep on the question of this worrisome difference: “So they did sleep and sleep and sleep some more.”
Flora and Fernando learn from Mum that as flamingo mature they become pink—and here’s where the fun begins—because of what they eat! Adult flamingos remain pink because they eat “diatoms, seeds, blue-green algae, crustaceans, and mollusks.”
As a teaching tool, Maybe We Are Flamingos introduces children to the relationship between the food consumed and the physical state of bodies. Flora and Fernando imagine how they would look if they ate only broccoli or tacos, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese and sundry other foods, even candy canes and pizzas.
The illustrations of the imaginary “food-flamingos” are bound to tickle the fancy of the children this book is intended to entertain. Mimicking Flora and Fernando, children will likely want to draw pictures of their own fantasy food-flamingos—mine would be a sketch of a chocolate chip cookie flamingo!
Parents (or grandparents) selecting a book for their children will realize that a purpose of Maybe We Are Flamingos is to address the perennial fear children have of not belonging to some acceptable group. Those same adults will guess the point the book makes on this theme. They might quote Mum Flamingo even before she speaks: “It’s not the color of your feathers that’s important, but what’s in your hearts.”
The final page shows Flora and Fernando who are already becoming pink, sleeping the sleep of satisfied innocents.
Armchair Interviews says: A good message for children.
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