There Is a Flower at the Tip of My Nose Smelling Me

by Alice Walker, Stefano Vitale (Illustrator)

Overview

There is a road
At the bottom
Of my Foot
Walking me.

In a beautifully poetic and gently provocative text, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker invites readers young and old to see the world -- and our place in it -- through new eyes.

Glowing colors and radiant images accompany this joyous celebration of the connections and interconnections between self, Nature, and creativity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780060570804
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	05/09/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Alice Walker won the Pulitzer Prize and an American Book Award for her novel The Color Purple. She has written numerous poems, essays, and short stories, including her most recent book, The Way Forward is With a Broken Heart. Originally published in 1974, Langston Hughes: American Poet was Alice Walker's first book for children. This picture book biography is now back in print with a new author's note and beautiful new illustrations. Ms. Walker lives in Northern California.

Stefano Vitale's award-winning artwork appears in galleries and exhibitions as well as in such picture books as When the Wind Stops, by Charlotte Zolotow (an ALA Notable Book). Mr. Vitale is a graduate of the University of Southern California and of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. He lives with his family in Venice, Italy.

Hometown:

Mendocino, California

Date of Birth:

February 9, 1944

Place of Birth:

Eatonton, Georgia

Education:

B.A., Sarah Lawrence College, 1965; attended Spelman College, 1961-63

Editorial Reviews

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Color Purple has written a melodious and reflective picture book in which a young girl celebrates the connections between self, nature, and creativity: "There is a song/Deep in/My Body/Singing/Me." Splendidly surreal illustrations in zesty pinks, oranges, and cobalt show a child completely in tune with the world around her, blissfully tasting raindrops and swimming in the ocean-a celebration of life in an unconventional, awe-filled gem of a book. (Ages 4 to 6)
Child magazine's Best Children's Book Awards 2006

Walker (The Color Purple; Finding the Green Stone) praises the surroundings that fortify the human experience. In her vision, people do not work their will on the things around them, but rather the people and the universe influence each other: "There is a flower/ At the tip/ Of my nose/ Smelling/ Me./ There is a sky/ At the end/ Of my/ Eye/ Seeing/ Me." Vitale (When the Wind Stops) paints great swaths of sunset sky that glow from the horizon, illuminating the serene face of a dreaming girl who looks as if she would be at home anywhere. "There is a dance/ That lives/ In my bones/ Dancing/ Me," reads the text, as the heroine, charged from within by streams of incandescent energy, leaps and sways in swirls of sunlight that stream out from her fingertips. "There is a story/ At the end/ Of my arms," Walker concludes, "Telling/ Me!" Now a rainbow falls over the girl's face, and creation holds out marvelous possibilities. Smaller versions of herself surround the girl in a frieze: in these miniature images she flies, dives into the waves with a fish and climbs the leaves of an enormous white flower to kiss its face. It's less a story than an illuminated prayer-an expression of gratitude for one girl, all humans and the whole of the cosmos. All ages. (Apr.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Acclaimed author Alice Walker reminds children and adults alike to slow down and appreciate the wonders of the world in There is a Flower at the Tip of My Nose Smelling Me. In the author's note at the end, Walker reveals that she wrote this long poem as a thank-you note to the universe. In language both playful and profound, Walker recognizes the connections and interconnections between all things. The sky, road, flowers and rain are not merely passive recipients of human actions but dynamic participants in an egalitarian relationship. "There is a road/ At the bottom/ Of my Foot/ Walking me," proclaims the text. "There is a dog/At the end/ Of my leash/ Holding/ Me. Stefano Vitale's illustrations are a vibrant accompaniment to this simple, wise text as well as a tribute to the beauty around us.

Children's Literature - Mary Quattlebaum

Gr 2-5-Walker celebrates the beauty of the world and our connection to it through a series of short verses that praise the senses, e.g., "There is an ocean/At the top/Of my/Head/Swimming me." Her use of the seeing, smelling, praising, dancing, etc., at the end of each verse accents and emphasizes human bonds to the world and the arts. Vitale's vibrant, jewel-toned illustrations embolden the folk-art simplicity of each verse. A singer's body merges as one with an instrument. The serene gaze of a star-flecked girl penetrates a cloud-filled night sky. Poetic in its appeal, the artistry of text with illustration highlights the depth of emotion and joyfulness found in the book's pages. Artistically stunning.-Mary Elam, Forman Elementary School, Plano, TX Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

It is seldom that word and image braid themselves together in such gorgeous perfection. Walker has written a text both ebullient and gentle, about a walk in the natural and in the spiritual world: "There is a sunrise / At the edge / Of / My skin / Praising / Me." Her young female narrator has long, curly hair and is the color of caramel. One could say that we see her walking, singing, dancing and sleeping, but that does not begin to encompass the myriad transformations Vitale imagines. Using a Venetian palette of lustrous intensity, he gives form to Walker's words: When the girl sings, her hair becomes musical notes, faces and flowers; her body becomes a stringed lyre. When there is a pen "Nestled / In my hand / Writing / Me," the girl becomes translucent against a lined page, her profile and her hair outlined in a flowing script of words. Young children will respond to the rhythm of the words and the intense beauty of the magical images; older children will hear the heartbeat of imagination along their own pulses. (Picture book. 4-9)

Kirkus Reviews