A young girl visits her beloved Lao Lao, and together they enjoy the nearby beach and its many treasures. When the girl finds a flamingo feather in her aunt’s home, Lao Lao begins the story of finding an egg, then hatching and caring for a little flamingo. Scenes of domestic tranquility are interspersed with more whimsical ones of raising the flamingo chick, and much love permeates all.
Back home in the city, the girl dreams of—and draws—a flamingo (is it the flamingo?) on which she flies back to Lao Lao, and the two sail away, on its back, together. The girl’s book of drawings, mailed to Lao Lao, further connects the two loving relatives who live so far apart.
The expressive Photoshop, watercolor, and pencil illustrations wonderfully convey the warm relationship between child and adult, and also the wonder the flamingo brings to their world—soft and muted for reality, bright and colorful for the tale, readers will have no trouble moving between the two. A charming, magical, and lovely book!
PS: maybe it’s because I grew up in the city, but there’s a spread near the end where the child flies away on the back of the flamingo—orange-pink bird against the blue-grey-purple skyscrapers—I’m right there, and I’m flying away, too!
--Lynn
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