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Not Difficult, Just Excited
Made to Fly Free follows an impatient young robin who longs to soar before his wings are ready and learns that courage, growth, and freedom sometimes begin with patience. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
Made to Fly Free was inspired by watching robin families nesting in our own backyard. There was one spring when my children were fascinated with a mother robin and her baby as she seemingly taught him to fly. The kids affectionately named the baby robin Little Peep and called his mama “Squawk” because of all the chatter that resulted in what appeared to be her flight lessons. That was when the story seed was planted, as I began to imagine how their conversations might have played out.
One spring when I was working out the heart of the story, it just so happened that another robin family built a nest right outside our kitchen window. My family and I had a front-row seat as the eggs hatched and the babies grew. We watched how both the mama and papa robins played an active role in caring for the nestlings. I started to imagine what it might be like for a baby bird who could see this whole big world beyond the nest but wasn’t quite ready to join it yet. And that became the heart of the story: wanting the freedom to fly while still needing the time to grow into it. As a mom of five kiddos, I found there’s something quite familiar in that tension!
How did you develop Little Peep’s personality so that his impatience would feel relatable to young children?
I wanted Little Peep’s impatience to come from a good place. It’s not that he’s trying to be difficult; he’s just excited! He watches the children “flying” free on the swing below him, and he wants so badly to experience that same freedom. It’s his natural instinct to want to fly. What he doesn’t know yet is that he will someday be able to surpass even the delightful freedom the children experience on that swing.
I think children understand that feeling instinctively. There are so many things they see older kids or adults doing that they’re eager to do, too, and “not yet” can be a very hard answer. I let Little Peep be enthusiastic, determined, and even a little dramatic at times. His desire to fly isn’t wrong; he just needs time for his wings to become strong enough to carry him. Then, of course, there’s the tension all children have experienced when it finally comes time to try the new thing for the first time—that moment when courage has to win over fear.
The book uses repetition, rhyme, and playful sounds throughout. How important was the read-aloud experience while you were writing it?
The read-aloud experience was incredibly important. Reading aloud has always been a big part of our family, and my children seemed to naturally gravitate toward books with playful words and lyrical storytelling. I read Made to Fly Free aloud over and over during the revision process, sometimes to my kids and plenty of times to myself. Reading aloud catches so many things your eyes don’t. You hear where rhythm stumbles, where a sentence runs too long, or where repetition starts to feel fun.
I also loved playing with sounds like “slurp,” “gulp,” and “squawk” because they give kids something to anticipate and join in with. There are several uses of “flutter, flutter, flutter” because I wanted readers to feel Little Peep’s momentum building along with his determination to fly free. I think that when the language is fun for a parent to read aloud, it becomes familiar enough after a couple of readings that a child might start saying parts of it right along with them.
What was the collaboration process like with illustrator Hannah Bird, especially for the energetic scenes of Peep learning to fly?
I first connected with Hannah when I saw how perfectly her work fit the vision I had for this picture book. After we met over Zoom, I walked away with such excitement because we connected on a deeper level. She valued the wholesomeness of my story, and I could see we had a strong values alignment.
Hannah immediately got to work on the sketches. There were some pages and spreads where I had a very specific concept in mind, but there were others where I had no idea what to do. In those places, I invited Hannah to put her artistic imagination to work. She captured Little Peep’s many expressions in a way that surpassed my expectations. I especially loved her addition of Little Peep’s heart in the second “flutter, flutter, flutter” sequence.
One of my favorite spreads Hannah illustrated is Little Peep’s first flight. The chaotic motion she captured paired perfectly with the action words hand-lettered by my daughter Hope, who designed the book layout. The collaboration between Hannah, Hope, and me made the story so much stronger than I could have ever imagined.
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Made to Fly Free
Made to Fly Free by Alison Schmidgall follows Little Peep, a young robin who’s eager to leave the nest and experience the freedom he sees around him. He wants to fly before his wings are ready, and much of the story centers on the tension between that eagerness and the patience growing requires. His parents gently remind him that his wings need time to strengthen, so Peep eats, waits, watches, and slowly changes until the day finally comes when he’s ready to fledge. The story gives young readers an easy way to understand that wanting something badly and being ready for it aren’t always the same thing.
Schmidgall’s writing has a lively read-aloud rhythm, with short phrases, repetition, rhymes, and playful sounds such as “chirp, slurp, gulp” and “flutter, flutter, flutter.” Those choices keep the story moving even during the sections when Peep is waiting. I especially liked how his impatience feels believable. He tries to spread his wings, gets frustrated when he can’t do what the other birds can do, and then remembers his mother’s reassurance that his time will come. That gives the book a warm emotional center without turning the lesson about patience and courage into a lecture.
Hannah Bird’s illustrations add a great deal to the storytelling. The soft, earthy palette of rust, brown, gold, green, and pale sky blue gives the book a gentle outdoor feel, while Peep’s expressive poses make his emotions immediately readable. The pictures also become more energetic as he gets closer to flying. Earlier spreads show him nestled safely in the nest or watching the world from above, while the flight sequence fills the pages with repeated images of Peep tumbling, spinning, swooshing, and finally soaring. Hand-lettered sound effects and looping motion lines make those pages feel almost animated. The illustrations carry much of the humor, suspense, and sense of movement.
What makes Made to Fly Free appealing is the way a small moment in nature becomes a story about growing into something you’re meant to do. Peep’s first flight isn’t presented as a single burst of bravery. It comes after waiting, nourishment, physical growth, encouragement, one shaky attempt, and then continued practice. By the end, he’s flying freely day after day while the children below cheer him on. It’s a sweet, visually inviting picture book that should work especially well for children facing a new skill, a big milestone, or one of those frustrating stretches when they’re ready for the next thing before the next thing is quite ready for them.
Pages: 32 | ASIN: 1947871072
