Product Description

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

• Amazon Sales Rank: #113457 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-01
• Released on: 2006-05-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 32 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780060570804
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
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 © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal
Grade 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 © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
K-Gr. 3^B. Walker celebrates humanity's connection with the natural world in reverse--from a flower "smelling me" to the sky "seeing me"--while Vitale's exuberant double-page spreads, in brilliant colors, show the rich rhythms of the universe as experienced by a joyful young woman. Then Walker links what her own five senses are telling her to the inspiration for the poetry she is writing. Echoing sounds and occasional rhyme ("There is a sky / At the end / Of my / Eyes / Seeing / Me") make the brief poems great for reading aloud. The magic realism is lovely here: petal, sky, ocean, and the bones of the human body--each piece a part of the whole.^B Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Morning has broken
I'm a contrary critter. At random moments, never when I can predict their appearance and never when I can guard against them, I will suddenly be beset by a case of the contraries. The very first time I laid eyes on an ad for Alice Walker's, "There Is a Flower At the Tip of My Nose Smelling Me", the contraries hit me full-force. Alice Walker's trying her hand at another children's book, eh? I was unimpressed. Oh sure, it looked cool. So do Madonna's books for that matter. It means nothing. So for months and months and months I refused to read the book. There's no explanation for it. I was simply being petulant. Sight unseen I'd made up my mind that I wasn't interested and that, ladies and gentlemen, was that. Such an attitude might suit a hermit living in a cave somewhere, but it is hardly befitting of a children's librarian. It was hard for me to ignore the fact that slowly the roar surrounding Walker's book has grown louder. It's on one best book of the year list.. no, two! No, three! I couldn't stand idly by and let this happen. If I was going to dislike this book, I was at least going to give myself a reason. So I picked it up and read it cover to cover and wouldn't you know it? It's not bad. Not bad at all. Certainly finding the right illustrator was key to the book's success, but nobody can say that Walker hasn't found a topic appealing to child-reader set. It's admittedly not the kind of poem I'd immediately gravitate towards, but I'd be lying to you if I said the book wasn't oddly beautiful. Not a first choice, but certainly a worthy one.

A young girl, her face visible only in the lower right-hand corner of the page, sniffs a pale pink bloom. Says the text, "There is a flower at the tip of my nose smelling me." Turn the page and now the girl is embedded within a deep black/blue/purple sky. Here eyes are the clouds that float before her face, stars dotted everywhere. "There is a sky at the end of my eye seeing me." Working with this inside-out look at the world, the girl goes on to discover rain, dances, oceans, and finally, "There is a story at the end of my arms telling me!"

In her "Note from the Author" at the end of the book, Ms. Walker explains how the inspiration for this poem came to her. Basically, she was walking in a forest near her house and "the wonder of myself as part of all this overcame me. I began to sing: 'I come out of You, my Love. I come out of You!' ". She later remarks that, "I wrote this book, which was not a book then, but a thank you note." It wouldn't be too much of a stretch then to interpret this book as a religious meditation on God's wonders. On the other hand, it would be equally easy to see this as an example of personal empowerment. After all, the book is all about me me me. I guess that in addition to creating a book where kids can bend their minds around statements like, "There is a pen nestled in my hand writing me", Ms. Walker leaves its spiritual significance wide open. The bookflap of this title describes the poem as a, "gently provocative text", which seems like wishful thinking on the publisher's part. Still, there's is definitely an allure here that's hard to pin down.

It's a pity that the book doesn't happen to mention how illustrator Stefano Vitale created the art. From what I can tell it may have involved painting directly onto a wooden canvas, but that's just guesswork. Certainly Walker's poem is quite nice. Kid-friendly and simple, but with just the right hint of something deeper involved. Still, it's not hard to imagine what could have happened had her words been paired with a less than stellar artist. Some might have taken her story and filled it with pastel puppy dogs, bubbles, and butterflies. Someone else might have gone the opposite direction and gone all mod on us. Maybe this would have been all adult-centered three-toned shades of brown and the occasional representational object for kicks affair. Vitale's strength with this book is that he's willing to make his work both child-friendly AND easy on the eyes. His images jump close to his subject matter, as with the picture of a sunrise where we can make out a quarter of the girl's face, prominent and striking, on almost half a page. Mr. Vitale is currently a resident of Venice, and perhaps his attachment to that particular city is at work in this book. The girl's masklike (though by no means unemotional) face, the colors, the sinuous use of line, etc. all give the book a distinctly European air. Or maybe I'm just saying that because I know where Mr. Vitale currently makes his home. Dunno. All I can say for sure is that if Mr. Vitale were to turn his image of the girl blending in with the indigo-hued night sky into a poster, he'd be set for life.

I'm a sucker for simplified openings. For example, you pick up this book and you open the front cover. The endpapers are just a shaded rainbow spectrum, continuous and unblemished. You turn the page. Here too is the image we saw on the cover on our left. Below it are two small dedications. On the right is the title page. After that the story starts, and all the remaining publication info is squeezed into the back of the book. There's nothing like a little good design to help a title of this type along.

It's still not my favorite book of the year, but that can't really be attributed to anything but personal preference. Alice Walker's latest hits all the right notes and is a thoughtful piece as well. Worth your time and consideration.

Great Book Not Only For Grade School Kids!
I really loved the brilliant color and the way each of the reader's senses was brought out in the book. For small children the colorful pictures will be irresistible, and for school age children it is an in depth look at the way our senses enhance our everyday life.

Great for the imagination
My 22-month-old loves the illustrations and is intrigued by the "reverse" thinking (a flower smelling her?) What a fun, creative and enticing book for all children!