FLAMINGO RAMPANT
FIFTH SEASON OFFERS NON-BINARY HEROES, NEURODIVERSE PROTAGONISTS AND HEALTHY MASCULINITY
BY GORDON NORE
F
or most of my 21 years as an elementary educator, I’ve worked as a teacher-librarian. One of the delights of my role is selecting new materials to share with colleagues and stu- dents. One of the challenges
is fi nding books that refl ect the diversity of the children I teach and their families. A lot of fi ction titles promoted as “diverse” are fo- cused on a singular issue be it gender, sexual- ity or ethnicity. Such books, even in the realm of fi ction, tend to lean hard on explaining a group of people, rather than letting them live inside their stories. And so, I have been delighted these last few years by the emergence of a micropress,
14 ETFO VOICE | WINTER 2022
Flamingo Rampant, now in its fi fth season. According to their website, Flamingo Ram- pant publishes “fun stories and beautifully illustrated children's picture books contain- ing important values like racial justice, dis- ability pride, kids taking action and, most of all loving, positive 2SLGBTQ+ families and communities.” For each new series of books, Flamingo Rampant solicits start-up funds via KickStarter, which also allows supporters to pre-order titles. Until now, the publisher has focused on picture books, but this new sea- son’s offering includes two novels for readers in the junior to intermediate grades, which I’ll discuss later. In Noodin’s Perfect Day, Noodin (mean- ing wind in Ojibwe) awakes with the per-
fect plan for the day at the house they share with their mom, a plan which includes pan- cakes and dogs to pet. “But the BEST part about Noodin’s PERFECT day is that the last THREE chapters of their book will be read, lying on the grass, under their FAVOURITE shady tree.” Of course, the day does not go ac- cording to plan, as Noodin’s mom tells them she has an online language class. Further complications arise when Noodin’s Aunty drops off her two young children for them to care for while she’s at the dentist. With cous- ins in tow, Noodin tries to salvage their plan by visiting their father, who has also been suddenly called in to work from home. With the help of their cousins, Aa and B, Noodin ends up having a somewhat different day
Writen by Ansley Simpson Ilustrated by Rhael McGregor
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