Recommended Picture Book: Flora and the Penguin by Molly Idle

Title: Flora and the Penguin

Author: Molly Idle

Illustrator: Molly Idle

Publisher: Chronicle Books, 2014

Topic: Friendship, Ice skating, Penguins

Age: 4-6

Opening: this is a wordless book. The opening page shows Flora putting on ice skates and a penguin poking its nose out of an ice hole.

Summary: Flora and her friend penguin enjoy ice skating together, but when Flora misunderstands penguin’s gift of a fish, there are hurt feelings on the ice. They have to work together to mend their friendship.

Resources:

In this story, Flora and her dance companion are ice skating. Since this is a wordless book, have your child(ren) learn the names of the different ice skating techniques and moves.

Create dialogue for the illustrations.

Discussion topics:

1.       Why do you think penguin gave Flora a fish?

2.       What was Flora’s response?

3.       How did penguin respond to Flora’s rejection of the fish?

4.       Why do you think Flora rejected the fish?

5.       Have you ever not like a gift a friend gave you? What did you do?

6.       What are some polite ways of accepting an unwanted gift?

Why I Like the Book:

The illustrator Molly Idle did another fantastic job telling this story through pictures. She has created a lovable character in Flora and the penguin. The illustrations are soft and muted. I loved the various layers in the illustrations. While Flora and penguin danced above the ice, the fish below also danced with them, following the movements. On one page, I could tell Flora did a figure 8 because of the fish.