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

by Alice Walker, Queenbe Monyei (Illustrator)

Overview

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and activist Alice Walker invites readers young and old to see the world—and our place in it—through new eyes in this new edition featuring art from Queenbe Monyei.

With beautifully poetic text and joyous illustrations to guide readers through their read, There Is a Flower at the Tip of My Nose Smelling Me is an ode to the natural world and our place in it. Celebrating the connections and interconnections between self, nature, and creativity, this gently provocative text opens up the world to a reader, and a reader to our world.

From the celebrated author of The Color Purple and other classics comes a beautiful, lyrical picture book for fans of her work of all ages.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063089914
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	06/14/2022
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 11.20(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Alice Walker is an internationally celebrated writer, poet, and activist whose books include seven novels, four collections of short stories, five children’s books, and several volumes of essays and poetry. She has received the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction and the National Book Award, and has been honored with the O. Henry Award, the Lillian Smith Award, and the Mahmoud Darwish Literary Prize for Fiction. She was inducted into the California Hall of Fame and received the Lennon Ono Peace Award. Her work has been published in forty languages worldwide.

Queenbe Monyei is an illustrator and author of children’s books. After graduating from UCLA, she worked as an international teacher in the UK, Turkey, Denmark, and Germany. She is the owner of Queenie Bee Studio, developing planners and digital resources with mental health and wellness in mind. She currently lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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

08/08/2022

Walker shares a vision of oneness with the world in this evocative picture book filled with centering imagery. “There is a road/ At the bottom/ Of my/ Foot/ Walking me,” reads one passage that’s emblematic of the reverse perspective on display, through which flowers smell, sky sees, ocean swims, and rain tastes the narrator. Monyei’s bold graphics employ flatly colored visuals of a Black-presenting child in a pink top who sniffs an oversize coral-colored flower, gazes at a smiling moon atop a city skyline, swims among fish and a whale, and stands, tongue out, in the rain. While initial sensory-based examples emphasize nature, later passages shift to the artistic: “There is a poem/ In the cradle/ Of my Soul/ Rocking me.” Walker’s rich poetic conceit juxtaposes with Monyei’s spare aesthetic; working in concert, text and image build to a conclusion that neatly invites the reader to feel connected by embracing the experiential. Ages 4–8. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"Each richly hued full-page spread celebrates the joys and delights of the world. The simple poetic text is often enhanced by its visual layout. The connection the poet feels between the small flower and the concluding expanse of the sky at book’s end should inspire children to see how they can interact with their surroundings and create their own poetry to express the beauty of the universe and their place within it." — Booklist (starred review)

"Walker shares a vision of oneness with the world in this evocative picture book filled with centering imagery. Walker’s rich poetic conceit juxtaposes with Monyei’s spare aesthetic; working in concert, text and image build to a conclusion that neatly invites the reader to feel connected by embracing the experiential." — Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

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

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