School Library Journal Review

PreS-Gr 2-Marco the flamingo is a southern bird who is curious about the north. He anxiously awaits the arrival of the snowbirds-migrating ducks and geese-to ask them about their homes but they just tell him that he doesn't want to know. But Marco does want to know, so he heads north to experience the cold for himself. As he soars farther and farther, the tropical background fades into snow and Marco magically acquires earmuffs, a brightly striped scarf with matching socks, jeans, and a parka. Although some of the humor (complaining about snowbirds, for example) is aimed at adults, children will enjoy the comical illustrations of the spindly legged flamingo snowboarding, ice skating, and skiing. Although the Spanish is grammatically correct, it doesn't always match the reading level of the English. For instance, even for Spanish-speaking children, "regresaron" is much more difficult to pronounce than "they're back." A small picture at the end shows a melting snowman and Marco returning south. Pair this book with Janet Morgan Stoeke's A Hat for Minerva Louise (Dutton, 1994) and David Shannon's Duck on a Bike (Scholastic, 2002) for a rollicking storytime about oddball birds.-Rebecca Hickman, Sherman Library at NSU, Fort Lauderdale, FL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.