Having mastered ballet in Flora and the Flamingo, Flora takes to the ice and forms an unexpected friendship with a penguin. Twirling, leaping, spinning, and gliding, on skates and flippers, the duo mirror each other's graceful dance above and below the ice. But when Flora gives the penguin the cold shoulder, the pair must figure out a way to work together for uplifting results. Artist Molly Idle creates an innovative, wordless picture book with clever flaps that reveal Flora and the penguin coming together, spiraling apart, and coming back together as only true friends do.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
Simplicity and difference of Idle's stories
By Denis Vukosav
'Flora and the Penguin' made by Molly Idle is second book in author's series started with 'Flora and the Flamingo' in which she uses only pictures without any text still managing to express many subtle emotions – in same time leaving for children imagination to fill out the story details.In previous book young readers met Flora, a young girl who loves to dance together with her skillful partner – a flamingo. In this installment Flora will enjoy in winter pleasures, skating across the ice together with her new friend, penguin.Together they are skating beautifully but after some disagreement, penguin will disappear. But the story will not end sadly, because the penguin will again appear and two friends will skate as beautiful duet, beautiful and perfect as dance can only be perfect, enabling children to enjoy looking their beautiful moves on ice across several pages...The same thing said for the previous book can be repeated – simplicity and difference of Idle's stories compared to others is that they come wordless, with flaps only, although it seems that no words are needed or missing.The story is again illustrated using simple, but elegant and precisely drawn figures of two dancers on ice, both having a bit of yellow color, in contrast with all the ice and blue color around.Therefore, with 'Flora and the Penguin' Molly Idle has again succeeded to show with her drawings and without a single word different emotions in the two main characters which are changing as the reader turns a new page. Together with a wonderful message of friendship that book carries these are all reasons why second book in Flora series together with other Molly Idle works can be fully recommended for older preschoolers.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Inspiring
By Daniel Middleton
A follow-up to Flora and the Flamingo, which was awarded a Caldecott Honor for 2014, Flora and the Penguin continues the graceful performance tale of ice skater Flora, this time accompanied by an equally skillful penguin. Together they cut across a thick ice sheet in a balletic duet that is almost musical. Though the book is wordless, intricate movements performed by the pair, along with subtle body language and telling facial expressions are enough to tell a clear story. Interestingly, there is even a subplot, as dancing fish below the ice are seen, and our skating penguin is distracted from his own dance as he sets off to pursue one. Fold-out flaps lift the printed spectacle to new heights and enhance the storytelling, and why not? for it is the art that truly sings here.Molly Schaar Idle, as it is well known by now, is a former animator for DreamWorks Feature Animation Studios and PBS Kids, so it is not surprising that her work here looks like stills from a CGI film. Stunning gradient-filled forms glide across each page in beautiful pastels that are backed by an icy landscape, and it is enough to make you forget that your head is buried inside a book. Good stuff.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.Flora skates into a great story!
By This Kid Reviews Books
This is a wonderful wordless picture book by Ms. Idle. It is the sequel to her book Flora and the Flamingo, and it still has that marvelous, warm feeling to it (even though it's on ice ;) )! Ms. Idle’s illustrations are beautiful, realistic and makes the reader feel the flow of the skaters. The colors in the book are pretty much just shades of blue and it adds to the whole wintery feeling of the book. I love the story of friendship that it tells through its' illustrations. The flaps are fun to flip, and really give the effect of the characters swishing across the ice. Flora is a wonderful character. I like that she is not "princessy" (if that is a word). She looks like a regular little girl and that is a good image. The ending is fantastic!
