This illustrated first chapter book is about a young girl,
Anna Dupont, who inherits a dilapidated hotel from her aunt. The Flamingo Hotel
is for animals and when Anna arrives it is being run on a shoestring by T. Bear
and Lemmy the lemur. Anna is fearless and sets about trying to clean and tidy
up the place and return it to its former glory as ‘the sunniest hotel in town.’
The Hotel Flamingo is a place where all
kinds of animals are made welcome and treated with respect, cockroaches, warthogs
and all!
They recruit some more staff including Sella the giraffe maintenance
officer, Hilary Hippo a cleaner with a dust allergy and Madame le Pig, the
terrifying but brilliant chef. Everyone must learn to co-operate and work
together with good humour to make the hotel into a success. Mrs Fragantri’s
flamingo theatrical troupe join for a working holiday. She charmingly
articulates one of the themes of the story,
‘‘One thing I’ve
always found in this business,’ said Mrs Fragranti, gesturing flamboyantly with
a wing, ‘is that you need friends to succeed. Look after your friends, darling,
and your friends will look after you.’’
The gentle jeopardy is provided by Ronald Ruffian the owner
of the rival Glitz Hotel who tries and fails to belittle Anna as well as get
the hotel closed down. There is an undercover visit from a hotel inspector to
contend with.
The book is beautifully written with a rich vocabulary and a
warm, humorous tone that is a delight for a child to read alone or to have read
to them. The pink and grey illustrations by Alex Milway that appear on every
page reflect the fun and energy of the text.
If you study the map (I’m a sucker for maps) of Animal
Boulevard you can find the exact location of the hotel as well as other
delights such as Port Whisker, Tusks Cinema and the rival Glitz Hotel. There
are even twenty snails to discover as well as a recipe for lettuce soup.
A delight from start to finish with another book in the
series coming soon.
ISBN 978-1-84812-775-3
Published by Piccadilly Press www.piccadillypress.co.uk
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