Editorial Review
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.
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Customer Reviews
A Beautiful Poem in a Beautiful Book 
2007-07-18
I have a favorite quote that I like and this goes along with what this book is about. I forgot who wrote this, but it goes like this:
"Won't you come into my garden? I would like my roses to meet you."
This book is about how nature is meeting the author and getting to know her and how the author is essentially passive and is just enjoying all that nature is giving back to her emotionally. Basically, the flower is so beautiful, that she feels that it has a personality that wants to spiritutally connect to her. Instead of her leading the dog, the dog is leading her, and she can just feel free to spiritually experience that without having to be the leader--its a book about accepting the moments of life as they come, and the spiritual contact we sometimes don't experience because we are too busy thinking and planning for the next thing.
It's a beautiful book that makes you stop and realize that there is so much happening around us that we just tune out to, but if we just don't think so much and just feel and try to emotionally identify with nature and it's beauty and the beauty inside of us, there is beauty all around us. Its a book about feeling joyful and rejoicing--at least that is what I felt this BEAUTIFUL BOOK is about.
The illustrations are simple but very colorful, but that is what the book is about--the simplicity of life and its wonders---how nature can touch us if we don't try so hard to touch it. Just sit back and let the flower give something to you without reaching out to it---the flower will reach out to you. Without taking a pen to write about yourself, don't try so hard and let the pen write you---JUST LET GO--sometimes we try so hard to be happy, instead of just letting go and letting what's around us speak to us and take us where we need to go.
Beautiful poetry and illustrations 2007-07-14
This is a book that both young children and their parents can enjoy. The illustrations are detailed and beautiful, accompanying the poetry perfectly. The use of language to describe the sensations and spiritual experiences is both beautiful enough to make lovely poetry, and descriptive enough to engage young (and not so young) children. This book is a wonderful addition to any children's collection.
Morning has broken 2006-12-03
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 for the imagination 2006-07-12
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!
Great Book Not Only For Grade School Kids! 2006-05-18
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.
