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Molly Idle facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Molly Schaar Idle is an American artist who writes and illustrates books for children. She also used to work as an animator. In 2014, she won a special award called a Caldecott Honor for her picture book Flora and the Flamingo. This award is given to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.

About Molly Idle's Life and Work

Molly Idle was born in Los Angeles, California. When she was six, her family moved to Tempe, Arizona. She studied art at Arizona State University.

After college, Molly started her career as an animator at DreamWorks Animation. She worked on animated movies for five years. Her job involved drawing the in-between frames that make characters move smoothly. She helped create films like The Road to El Dorado, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, and Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas. She also worked as an animation artist for PBS Kids, which creates shows for children. Molly left DreamWorks when the studio started using more computer animation instead of hand-drawn animation.

Molly Idle's first illustrated book, Emma's Gift, was published in 2003. She also wrote and illustrated books for a series called In God We Trust between 2004 and 2007.

In 2013, she started a series of wordless picture books, which means they tell a story mostly through pictures without many words. The first book in this series was Flora and the Flamingo. It became very popular and received the Caldecott Honor award in 2014.

Molly creates her beautiful drawings by layering different colors of pencil drawings. This technique gives her illustrations a unique look.

Molly Idle's Books

Here are some of the books Molly Idle has illustrated or written:

  • Zombelina (2013), where she was the illustrator
  • Rodeo Red (2015), where she was the illustrator; written by Maripat Perkins
  • Coral (2020)

The Flora Series

This is a popular series of wordless picture books:

  • Flora and the Flamingo (2013)
  • Flora and the Penguin (2014)
  • Flora and the Peacocks (2016)
  • Flora and the Ostrich: An Opposites Book (2017)
  • Flora and the Chicks: A Counting Book (2017)

The Rex Series

Molly Idle also created this fun series of books:

  • Tea Rex (2013)
  • Camp Rex (2014)
  • Sea Rex (2015)
  • Santa Rex (2017)
  • Pearl (2018)
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