Mud City: A Flamingo Story

by Brenda Z. Guiberson

The shallow lake is crowded with flamingos. A few stand on a toothpick leg and doze. Others dip their heads upside down into the cloudy water to eat. But most sit on a mud nest to shade an egg from the blistering sun.

Follow a flamingo from egg through adulthood in this fascinating tale

On a muddy mound in a salty lake, a mother and father flamingo take turns protecting their egg from the hot sun. Soon a fluffy white chick hatches in the nest near the mangrove roots.
Just four days later the chick learns to swim. By the time he is five weeks old, he can find food for himself. When pink feathers replace his white baby down, he is ready to learn to fly.

For years the young bird flocks with other flamingos in quiet lagoons and salty lakes. At last he finds a mate and returns to the mud city near the mangrove trees to build a nest of his own.

Genres: Science, Picture Books, Animals, Nonfiction

32 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2005

About the author

Brenda Z. Guiberson has written many books for children, including Cactus Hotel, Spoonbill Swamp, Moon Bear and Disasters. As a child, Brenda never thought she wanted to be a writer—her dreams tended more toward jungle explorer. She graduated from the University of Washington with degrees in English and Fine Art. She started thinking about writing for children when her son went to elementary school, and she volunteered in his class and in the school library. After taking exciting trips that involved a fifty-foot cactus, hungry alligators and sunset-colored spoonbills, she wanted to create books for children that would be like a field trip. Her books are full of well-researched detail, and Brenda sees this research as an adventure—one that allows her to be a jungle explorer at last. She lives in Seattle, Washington.

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, perhaps I am being just a trifle too overly critical and picky with regard to Brenda Z. Guiberson’s 2005 non-fiction picture book Mud City: A Flamingo Story (and only considering a two star rating). For yes, what Guiberson writes about flamingoes is certainly textually enlightening, full of interest retaining specifics on a flamingo’s diet, on their physiology (and especially on how flamingos can not only survive but also thrive and flourish in very harshly forbidding environments) etc., and with Brenda Z. Guiberson’s text also being successfully visually mirrored by accompanying illustrations that are both luminous and realistic and which sometimes even visually expand a bit on the printed words, on Guiberson’s writing, and with Mud City: A Flamingo Story thus and definitely providing a massive plethora of textual information (suitable for young readers and/or listeners from about the age of seven to ten) regarding how flamingoes live (and also and in particular how they breed, how they often nest in and on the shores of highly saline lakes and mud flats, with this keeping both flamingo parents and also their offspring safer from predators, but sadly, not always protected from waves and torrential rains, not from so-called natural disasters, and yes, that it takes something like five years for flamingoes to fully mature).

But as much as I do appreciate Brenda Z. Guiberson’s combination of enlightening text and visually detailed, delightfully descriptive artwork (and think that they generally do work pretty well together in Mud City: A Flamingo Story) I cannot and will not ignore the textual and content based issues I have personally encountered and which have definitely lessened both potential reading pleasure for me and also considering Mud City: A Flamingo Story as a non-fiction picture book on flamingoes to recommend without some necessary caveats.

For one (and this is actually an issue I have encountered regarding the vast majority of Brenda Z. Guiberson’s nature and wildlife oriented picture books I have read to date), considering that Guiberson’s presented narrative for Mud City: A Flamingo Story is both lengthy, densely factual and with its sometimes rather sophisticated vocabulary not really suitable (in my humble opinion) for children below the age of seven, sorry, but I do find the onomatopoeic sounds Guiberson incorporates into her flamingo account rather annoying, silly and distracting, and therefore leaving the text of Mud City: A Flamingo Story rather hanging between being penned for younger or for older children (and with my own inner child definitely feeling both distracted and also a bit insulted, a bit talked down to with Brenda Z. Guiberson’s regular use of onomatopoeia, as I do think her onomatopoeia would work much better in a book geared towards toddlers, since this does for me make Mud City: A Flamingo Story feel a trifle annoyingly silly at times).

For two, I do have to wonder why in Mud City: A Flamingo Story Brenda Z. Guiberson specifically and in detail describes flamingoes being chased by wild pigs (in the Bahamas) but then fails to mention that wild pigs are in fact and problematically so an invasive species in the Bahamas (and actually, in ALL of North and South America) and as such a human caused ecological blight and disaster especially on islands like the Bahamas and in the Caribbean (and yes, I definitely do consider Guiberson just seemingly rendering those attacking wild pigs as naturally occurring predators as being both wrong in and of itself and also pretty naive).

And finally, but actually the main reason why my final verdict regarding Mud City: A Flamingo Story is two and not a three star rating is that considering how much factual information and ecological details Brenda Z. Guiberson provides, I really do neither understand nor am I able to academically forgive that there are no secondary sources provided, that Brenda Z. Guiberson somehow thinks that Mud City: A Flamingo Story requires no bibliography with suggestions for further study and research.

[Elizabeth Connolley]

"Mud City" follows the life of a flamingo from hatching to adulthood in a story-like manner. The flamingo must learn to find his own food and fly out of the dried lake to find water. He also has to escape from wild pigs and fly away from airplanes; the life of a flamingo is not easy. Finally, the flock of flamingos find the perfect hot, salty lake to create their city of mud nests.

I enjoyed reading "Mud City" and exploring its illustrations. I especially like how the author informs the reader about the life cycle of flamingos and the environments they live in through the rhythm of a story. You aren't just reading facts about flamingos, you are following the life of a young character experiencing hardships and joy.

"Mud City" would be a great way to teach a class about flamingos. It would also be a good way to introduce various types of environments and how living things can thrive in different, sometimes harsh, environments; for example, flamingos can drink water that is saltier than the ocean by releasing excess salt through their tears.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

We enjoyed this book, but didn't love it like we did Cactus Hotel. We learned many new things about flamingoes and because this is a 'whole, living' book it impacted the kids and they seemed genuinely interested and were able to narrate it with great detail. The illustrations were well done.

The one thing that makes a 3 star instead of higher is that it's a very sad book, and I don't think it needed to be. The author tells about the nests and awaiting of the eggs and then in a flood almost all of them are destroyed. My kids were very upset. Later the flamingo that we're following mates and has eggs of his own and many of those are destroyed by wild pigs. Another sad moment for my kids. My one question is, does this happen every year so it truly needs to be mentioned or are these rare instances that could have been left out? I'm all for telling the truth and making things realistic, but if these are few and far between it was overkill and my kids didn't like it.

A good book for learning about flamingoes, but not for sensitive kids.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Firstly, I love the illustrations in this! My next thought is that this is super informative and all, however it's quite dry. To be expected, but I think by adding more interest to the visual part of the text would've helped. Also, I feel like the names of the birds should be capitalized. No matter that, it was still a very informative book about flamingos. I especially like how it starts/ goes through the process of the egg to baby flamingo.
This does have onomatopoeias in it ( zoom!)

[Haaley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think flamingos are beautiful birds and it is very cool to know that they are only pink because of their diet. I was unaware that they cry salty tears and have 'flamingo milk' which is like a mother bird eating food and puking it up but instead of vomit, it is produced by the parents.
Very cool.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid nonfiction picture book, interesting, but not particularly compelling. Recommended for ages 5-8 if they are into flamingoes.

[Shelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is interesting and informative look into the life of a flamingo from egg to adulthood. The fact that surprised me the most was “Sometimes they migrate hundreds of miles during the night before returning to feed the chick.” I wonder if I would have had that kind of determination to nurture my own child or would have just opted to stick with having a dog.

Mud City would be a wonderful addition to any elementary/middle school classroom or library, particularly when covering Earth Science.

[Gemma Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little above Xuan Xuan's head, but it had a lot of information about the flamingo life cycle packed into a story format.

[Kathryn Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

A funny flamingo shares his life story and all about him. This would be nice to use in a unit on animals or tropical biomes. Grades 3-5.