Molly Schaar Idle is an American children's book illustrator, author and animator. In 2014, she was awarded a Caldecott Honor for her picture book Flora and the Flamingo.[1]

Life and career

Molly Idle was born in Los Angeles, California and moved with her family to Tempe, Arizona when she was six years old.[2] She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Arizona State University.[3] After college, she began her career as an animator for DreamWorks, working as an inbetweener and breakdown artist[4][5] for five years. She worked on the films The Road to El Dorado, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas.[6] She also was an animation artist for PBS Kids.[3] She left DreamWorks after the studio transitioned to computer animation.[7]

Idle's illustrated book, Emma's Gift, was published in 2003. Between 2004 and 2007, her self-illustrated books were published as part of the In God We Trust series of fiction.[3]

Idle began a wordless picture book series, starting with the publishing of her book Flora and the Flamingo in 2013. The book received a Caldecott Honor in 2014.[3]

Her drawing technique uses a layering of color pencil drawings.[4]

Selected works

Flora series

Rex series

References

  1. ^ Saxon, Antonia (September 9, 2014). "Q & A with Molly Idle". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  2. ^ Morrison, Kara (April 12, 2015). "Local Caldecott-winning author shares favorite books". Arizona Republic. pp. 9D. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Stock, Jennifer, ed. (2018). "Molly Idle". Something About the Author. Vol. 326. Gale. pp. 107–110. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  4. ^ a b Manley, Janet (May 18, 2020). "Author-Illustrator Molly Idle On How Having Children Changes The Way You Read". Romper. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  5. ^ Bird, Betsey (May–June 2015). "Apples to elephants: artists in animation". The Horn Book Magazine. Vol. 91, no. 3. p. 34. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  6. ^ Willett, Johanna (March 13, 2014). "Success hinges on spirit of story: Movies to Books". Arizona Daily Star. pp. E014. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
  7. ^ Náñez, Dianna M. (September 19, 2009). "Author/illustrator finds joy of motherhood/art career". Arizona Republic. p. 8. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
  8. ^ "Zombelina | From the Zombelina series". Kirkus Reviews. August 1, 2013. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  9. ^ Russo, Maria (March 12, 2015). "Here Comes Trouble". The New York Times. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
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