Oh, how I love Flora and the Flamingo, the first Flora book by Molly Idle, published in 2013. Those amazing flaps, like nothing we'd seen; the gracefulness of the illustrations, with infusions of humor; the lyricism of the story, without using any words. I was thrilled when it won a Caldecott Honor (and as we learned from Martha's Horn Book Magazine article "Caldecott 2014: The Year in Pictures", it's the first book with flaps to receive Caldecott recognition!).

And then I liked Flora and the Penguin a lot, which came out in 2014. And I liked Flora and the Peacocks a lot, which is eligible for this year's Caldecott race. Peacocks does something its predecessors did not by introducing a third character into the friendship dynamic with Flora. There are two birds for Flora to win over, if they can stop bickering with each other first. It's a really neat and kid-friendly twist that keeps things fresh, now that the flaps' magic is somewhat of a given. (And IMHO, some of the flaps in this book are less organic to the story than they seem to be buying time -- but Roger doesn't agree with me, and I don't want to agree with myself, so let's put that aside for now.) In any case, all is revealed (and forgiven) with the resplendent final foldout that cashes in, in a big way, on that peacock premise.

Peacocks doesn't overtake Flamingo in my heart. But as we know, the Caldecott committee members take into consideration only the book in front of them, not the author's previous work. And this book in front of me succeeds beautifully at presenting a wordless three-way friendship story, including the pitfalls and pleasures therein, with elegant visuals that aren't afraid to get cheeky.

Meanwhile, who's excited for Flora and the Chicks -- a counting-themed board book out early next year?