Title: Franky The Fearless Flamingo
Series: Franky the Flamingo, 4th in Series
By Wanda Luthman
Illustrator: Mara Reitsma
Available Paper and Ebook at Amazon
ISBN: 9781734009934 (2020)
Genre: Environment / Children’s Picture Book
Doing Good! Just Because
Frankie Does It Again with Lessons for the Planet
And for Living Better Lives
How lovely to have a children’s author who is also has a counseling background. Though I think of this Franky book (and Wand Luthman’s others) as little lessons in saving the planet, this one is the story of a crab who decides not to live up to his name learns about compassion from Franky to whom he owes gratitude but ends up being anything but mean and crabby.
Young children will love the rhyme, the relatable expressions of the animals he or she meets, but my hope is that they will remember the lines:
“Herman (the Crab) had learned to use his strength for good
To help someone in need just because he could.”
It seems this Franky story also shines as an anti-bullying story.
I have given my grandsons a copy of all of Luthman’s books for the empathetic stories, for environmental lessons, but also for the beautiful illustrations by Mara Reitsma, who, as it happens, almost always includes one of my favorite animals—a turtle—in her Florida-influenced artwork. It’s the Ocean! It’s the Color. It’s the variety of animals!
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