Like most little children, Phia, the little flamingo is a fussy eater. Bored of eating the same food, day in and day out, she sets off to find different and scruptious looking foods to eat. As, she flies from place to place, she meets many other birds feeding on a wide variety of delicious-looking foods; figs, nectar, fish and insects. Excited at the possibility of enjoying a gourmet spread, she tries to partake of the tantalising variery available, but to her sorrow discovers that her beak was not adapted to them.
Children will delight in the adventures of the fussy little flamingo and identify with her all-too familiar complaints to her mother. As they follow her around, rooting for her to find her own version of pizza, burgers and chaat, they will learn interesting facts about birds, their food preferences, the adaptation of their beaks, habits as well as their habitat. For instance, they will learn how pelicans fish for food, versus a heron; and that some birds dive from the air into the water to fish whereas others dive under the water. And that, the strength of a woodpecker's beak adapted to digging behind the bark of trees versus that of a hoopoe who uses his beak to overturn stones to find grubs. They will also encounter not only the various shapes and sizes of the bird beaks but also the variety of sizes they come in--from the tall flamingos to the the little sunbird--oneof the smallest birds in India.
The factoid on the birds, is cleverly presented in small snippets alongside the illustrations. Children can read and absorb as and when they feel like, and hence, will not feel overloaded by information. Perhaps encourage children to become avid birders!
Beautifully illustrated in clay, the images seem to jump up out of the page, giving it a very three-dimensional feel. However in some pages the dark colours o fteh illustration makes the font somewhat difficult to read.
A part of the Scholastic Early Science Series, this book along with the others in the series will encourage children to look anew at the natural world around them.
A must for school libraries and for every lover of nature.