THERE IS A FLOWER AT THE TIP OF MY NOSE

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)