Hotel Flamingo: Fabulous Feast; Alex Milway

Hotel Flamingo is one of my favourite series of early chapter books for young readers. The stories are brilliant, the characters are delightful and there are some really great messages about positivity, working hard, being kind, inclusivity and teamwork.

It’s the end of winter, the snow is slowly melting and it’s time to attract new guests to the hotel. Anna Dupont, the hotel manager, knows just how to do it. The hotel will host a cooking competition where the hotel’s own star chef, Madame Le Pig, will pit her culinary skills against Peston Crumbletart and Toot-Toot - two rival chefs on Animal Boulevard.

It is time for the Battle of the Chefs, a fabulous feast and to determine once and for all who is the master chef on Animal Boulevard. Ready, steady, cook…

Anna’s own version of Masterchef comes to town in the fourth instalment in the Hotel Flamingo series. What has also come to town is a complete lack of confidence; Madame Le Pig has stage-fright and a recently arrived stunt pigeon is suffering his own lack of self-belief. Never fear though, effervescent flamingo Ms. Fragranti is on hand to help everyone feel better about themselves.

A dollop of excitement, a sprinkling of rivalry, a dash of hard-work and a big helping of self-belief are the key ingredients in this delightful story. Anna’s marvellous menagerie of hard-working staff are all on hand to deliver another wonderfully enjoyable read that is filled with fun, humour and plenty of charm.

As always, the hotel is looking after some rather demanding guests - cows in search of gourmet grass (one of which is hiding a secret grass allergy and is leaving some rather unpleasant ‘treats’ around the hotel) and a coconut octopus who needs salty seawater. Hotel Flamingo welcomes everyone!

The book is perfectly sized for smaller hands and the story, told over twenty short chapters, is great for those children that are new to chapter books and are building up their reading stamina. Plenty of illustrations help to break up the text and an additional challenge asks readers to spot an insect that has flown its way into twenty of the scenes.

A mouth-watering read that is sure to satisfy the appetite of many young readers.

Recommended for 5+.