Hotel Flamingo by Alex Milway

I adore books where a mess is cleaned up. Where order is restored out of chaos. Where everyone works together to transform a house, garden or in this case a hotel.

Anna has inherited The Flamingo Hotel. Sadly its glory days are long past. A new, more glamorous, hotel has opened on Animal Boulevard. Hotel Flamingo has no guests and all the staff have left. When Anna arrives there are only two employees left - a bear called T. Bear who works as the doorman and a ring-tailed lemur called Lemmy who works on the reception desk.

There is dust and dirt everywhere. The pool is broken, the sign outside has fallen down and the manager's office is filled with so much paper Anna can't even find a desk or a seat.  Every floor is wrecked.

"The tour started on the ground floor in the lobby. There was a restaurant which was filled with old crooked tables but no chairs. Next up was the Piano Lounge, with a carpet so dizzily patterned that it made Anna's head hurt. The piano was missing three keys and was out of tune, but at least there was a piano, thought Anna."

Anna puts out an advertisement for new staff.  She takes on:

• Stella Giraffe an expert handy woman
• Madame Le Pig a world-famous chef
• Eva Koala waitress
• Squeak a old mouse who works as the bellboy
• Hilary Hippo the cleaner - she is allergic to dust and fanatical about cleaning

This new crew transform the hotel but of course a disaster might be just around the corner especially when the health inspector arrives and when you have asked a group of flamingo's to perform in the piano lounge.

Guests begin to arrive including a group of cockroaches. Just like Mona from the Heartwood Hotel, Anna welcomes all guests. Later when pool water pipes are blocked Mr Roachford and his group come to the rescue as only cockroaches can. I love the fact that the cockroaches are heroes.

Hotel Flamingo will be be available from 7th February.

I can see this book will be the beginning of a series. The  cute map at the front of the book shows Fort Rhino, Zoozoo Theme Park, Lizard Beach and LeChat Shopping Mall. Perhaps each of these will be the setting for future installments. I highly recommend Hotel Flamingo as a terrific addition for all school library collections and as a gift for a newly independent reader. For me it is a ten out of ten book!

The obvious pairing for this book is the Heartwood Hotel series by Kallie George. If the size and format of this book appeals you could also look at the Claude series by Alex T Smith, Violet and the Pearl of the Orient by Harriet Whitehorn and Mango and Bambang by Polly Faber.  Alex Milway has made a trailer celebrating the cockroaches with a fabulous song you could teach your class. Here is another trailer without the song.


It’s full of joie de vivre, and I loved its story line of a little girl who creates jobs, works hard alongside her staff, welcomes the downtrodden, and triumphs in the face of adversity. Lil Blue Bottle