• About
  • Submissions
  • Store
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Twitter

Story Warren

Kindling Imagination for Kingdom Anticipation

  • Fostering Imagination
    • Valuing Imagination
    • Parenting
    • Faith & Vision
  • Resources
    • Books
    • Music
    • Movies
    • Interviews
    • Lists
  • Warren & the World
  • For Kids
    • Poems
    • Stories
    • Songs

Flora Is a Feast for Little Eyes and Minds

August 1, 2018 by Loren Eaton 2 Comments

To many parents who prize creativity, children’s animation occupies a lower rung on the artistic ladder. The stuff of Saturday mornings can often seem needlessly broad, hopelessly derivative, and crassly commercial (with a few notable exceptions). In other words, it too often starves young imaginations rather than sustaining them. But what happens when a one-time animator decides to try her hand at children’s books? Very good things indeed if you happen to be former Dreamworks artist Molly Idle. Her Flora and the Flamingo is a wordless picture book fairly bursting with beauty and containing some surprisingly deep lessons for very young readers.

The flamingo stands serenely in a placid pool framed by pink plum blossoms. The bird’s every detail bespeaks effortless elegance, from the graceful curve of its neck to an arabesque so steady that the water never stirs around its slim leg. Such delicate majesty! Hold up, though: What is this? Why, it’s little Flora with her big, black flippers on and her hair bundled up beneath a yellow swimming cap. She wants to pose just like the flamingo. How cute. But she can’t possible hope to copy the bird’s perfect poise—can she?

It’s hard to imagine a better visual foil for the flamingo than Flora. Where the bird is long and lithe, she’s squat and stumpy. On some pages, she looks like a pink pear bedecked in swimming gear. She’s a normal little girl, in other words, one subject to all the adorable indignities of growing up. I love how, unlike many animators, Idle refuses to cast her as some willowy, idealized representation of childhood. I also love how Idle treats the topic of failure, because Flora fails quite spectacularly in her attempt to emulate the flamingo. Her movements are clumsy, her postures preposterous, and a sudden slip sends her head over heels into the drink, much to the flamingo’s raucous amusement. Here again, Idle diverts from animation’s standard operating procedure. Flora doesn’t resolve matters by transforming herself into an uber-competent expert or by somehow showing up the haughty flamingo. Rather, a moment of shared vulnerability transforms the situation for both of them—and leads to some unexpected fun! A feast for little eyes and minds.

(Picture: Copyright 2013 by Molly Idle; used under Fair Use)

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Loren Eaton
Loren Eaton
Loren has discovered that love covers over a multitude of Richard Scarry.
Loren Eaton
Latest posts by Loren Eaton (see all)
  • Imagination, Instruction, and a Cheery “Robot” Quartet - February 3, 2021
  • A Contentious, Incontestible Boy - January 27, 2021
  • Leepike Ridge Plunges Into Adventure - November 4, 2020

Filed Under: Books, Discovering Resources

Get Story Warren in Your Inbox

Comments

  1. Isabel says

    August 3, 2018 at 6:42 pm

    I love the very articulate review of an inarticulate book.

    Reply
  2. Susan says

    August 6, 2018 at 2:33 pm

    My sweet granddaughter and I have loved Flora and the Flamingo and the many different story lines that we create each time we pick it up! Such a beautiful background for a child’s imagination to flourish! The artistry of the renderings pleases us so…this book will be a joy for many years to come! Thank you, Molly Idle.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get Story Warren in Your Inbox

Join us on Facebook

Story Warren
  • Latest Posts
  • Store

Copyright © 2012 - 2021 Story Warren, LLC · Site by Design by Insight

Copyright © 2021 · Story Warren on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in