DO YOU REALLY KNOW FLAMINGOS?

No, flamingos do not dress in pink and stand on one leg to practice being ballerinas.

Todd invites younger readers savvy enough to join would-be know-it-all Frank E. Armadillo, a positive font of misinformation (“What is sand? Old SANDwich crumbs. Obviously”), in getting the straight poop on these underappreciated birds from a friendly feathered representative. Rising up from a clump of bushes in simply drawn, humorous cartoons, the perky pink narrator begins by explaining that, no, a nearby group of flamingos is officially not a “flock” but a “FLAMBOYANCE!” Notwithstanding their graceful appearance, the stilt-legged waders sound and look anything but dainty while eating and nesting in the mud, too. Moreover, they live in a wide range of wetlands from frozen to tropical, and their hue comes not (as Frank guesses) from eating pink cotton candy, but from shrimp and algae that they scoop up with beaks that “work best upside down.” Why flamingos stand on one leg must remain a “flamingo secret,” since no one knows. Still, by the end of the story, Frank has learned a lot about flamingos—and Frank won’t be the only one. Before the avian explainer carries the enchanted armadillo off on a closing flight, the larger message that continuing to ask good questions is the mark of a “true expert” comes through clearly, too.

Facts replace fancies in this droll Q&A.