Cover Image: The Flamingo

The Flamingo

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Member Reviews

I loved this book. Even though the words are few, the artwork is so strong and emotional to me. Definitely kids who come from immigrant parents will relate.

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Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book, as this book has already been published, I will not share my review on Netgalley at this time.

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Cinematic, beautiful, concise, and memorable. Hands down, one of the best children's graphic novels of 2022.

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Beautiful illustrations that tell an amazing story. This book embodies effective storytelling via the expert handling of, "show, not tell" method, which is surprisingly hard to master even in graphic novels. The Flamingo is very imaginative and moving.

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Beautiful art and magical atmosphere are found in The Flamingo, a wordless middle grade graphic novel. The atmosphere and the art are incredible. As the flamingo feather opens the door of an incredible adventure, a treasure hunt unfolds through history.

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A lovely, if a bit strange, book. The plot is simple but highly symbolic. Understanding relies heavily on visual interpretation skills. It's worth experiencing if only for the art which is refined and expressive.

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This was a sweet wordless graphic novel about a young girl visiting her grandmother in another country that lives near a beach. They bond over sea shell collecting and all the fun you can have on the beach. When the girl finds a feather at her grandmother's she is told a fantastical tale about a flamingo and when she goes back home to the city she discovers a flamingo feather there too.

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This mostly wordless, beautifully illustrated graphic novel chapter book has such a beautiful story about grandmother & granddaughter. It seems so simple at first glance, but its complexity is there, within the illustrations and story, and will truly inspire!

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Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Studio for a free ebook copy of The Flamingo by Guojing in exchange for an honest review.

Our main character, a young girl, travels across the globe solo to visit her grandmother (her Lao Lao). As they spend time together, Lao Lao shares the story of her childhood with her granddaughter. Lao Lao hatched a flamingo from an egg and raised it until it was able to fly off on its own. Impressed and inspired by the magic and Lao Lao’s connection with her avian friend, the girl travels back home and keeps up her connection with Lao Lao by sending her a book that she illustrated of her life story.

This was absolutely adorable. I smiled the entire time I was reading it. It was absolutely magical and heartwarming. I loved the use of two different color schemes to differentiate between the two timelines, and how we got to see them merge at the end. Beautiful. Lovely.

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This is a beautiful book. Both in the artwork and the story told within that artwork. I will be revisiting it again and again. I will also be sharing this with my daughter.

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The Flamingo is a great introduction to graphic novels for young readers. With more pictures than words, it will give readers the opportunity to understand how to read a graphic novel, meaning the order in which to follow the pictures and words. Author and illustrator Guojing created a simple yet sweet story of a young girl and her grandmother that many will relate to. With the story being primarily told in pictures, Guojing did a wonderful job of making it understandable while also tugging at your emotions. She really gets the point across in her beautiful illustrations. These book is appropriate for all ages–even the youngest readers. Children new to graphic novels or those who prefer to imagine their own dialog will love The Flamingo.

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What a gorgeous book. I loved the minimalist use of color in the illustrations, and the minimalist use of words to tell the story - the pictures do an amazing job standing on their own! The story itself is a beautiful one of connecting with family over past stories, and reality blending with imagination.

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i love to find children's books that relate to chinese and asian backgrounds! my nieces are cuban-chinese-korean and it's important to me that i can give them titles like this charming story to connect with their heritage and family!! love a good picture book, even as an adult. it's timeless!

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The Flamingo, a near wordless graphic novel, is a quiet and imaginative tale about the power of story. On a visit to their grandmother, called Lao Lao, a child finds a flamingo feather proudly displayed on a desk. The child asks Lao Lao for the story of the feather. In between scenes of Lao Lao and the child steaming dumplings, exploring the forest, and the beach, Lao Lao's story unfolds. A girl and her dog discover an egg on the beach and bring it home. When it hatches to reveal a flamingo, they to adulthood, where it flies off, leaving the girl to wait for its return. The child, entranced by Lao Lao's story, takes it home and creates her own story about flamingos, journeys, and family. The Flamingo parallels the story of raising a bird and its eventual migration, with that of family ties, love, and separation. Guojing (Stormy) masterfully mixes watercolor with colored pencil. Her illustrations use a muted grayscale palette with shades of pink that bursts into vibrant color when the scenes change into the stories Lao Lao and the child tell. Though the reader is never told where the child or their grandmother lives, the use of the term Lao Lao along with other contextual clues, hint at a Chinese background. The Flamingo is a tender, relatable novel that shows how stories inspire other stories and connect people across distances.

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What a delightful graphic novel for younger school age children. A young girl has a wonderful, fun filled visit with her grandmother, Grandmother tells a tale about what we assume is her own childhood experience with hatching a flamingo egg and caring for the flamingo. Sweet story of grandmother/grandchild connections.

Thanks to,author, publisher and NetGalley for preview copy.

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**ARC provided by NetGalley for honest review**

The Flamingo by Guojing is a beautiful, mostly wordless story about a little girl's relationship with her far away grandma and the story she tells about a flamingo that connects them. I adored this author's "The Only Child" work, so I was very excited about this new release as well when I heard of it and I was not disappointed. Guojing's art panels have this pretty, dreamlike quality to them that make you feel like you're going back in time or getting sucked in. She had a wonderful way of telling a story full of emotions simply through her images. Looking forward to more from this author!

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Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Children’s for the ARC of this!

This was such a pretty middle grade graphic novel, both in illustration and in story. I loved the use of color and the almost wordless content because the images just said so much on their own (I think there could’ve been no dialogue and it might’ve even been better, the few lines included didn’t seem super necessary) The relationship between grandparent and grandchild was adorable.

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So adorable, heart warming and a little sad. My 12 year old and I both loved this mostly picture story of a little girl, grandma, and a flamingo! Such lovely artwork.
Thank you NetGalley!

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The art in this book is nice, although the contrast of cartoony people and the realism of the flamingo is a little jarring. It is a sweet book, but not necessarily something that I feel would hold a young person's interest.

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A bit whimsical, a bunch of feeling, Guojing is an amazing wordless picture storyteller. Her illustrations are phenomenal. I love the contract between the duller and more colorful sections. What a cute story!

Thanks Random House Studio and Netgalley for giving the opportunity to access this ARC. I really enjoyed the book and look forward to its release, so our students can enjoy it too!

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