The Adventures of a Nose - Hardcover

Schwarz, Viviane

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0763616745 ISBN 13: 9780763616748

Publisher: Candlewick, 2002

Synopsis

A brilliantly original picture book about seeking acceptance offers a cleverly hidden image on every page.

Meet the Nose, a simple fellow who just wants to belong. It’s easy enough for the Nose to stick out, but will he ever be able to fit in? The Nose’s search for a place where he can be happy sends him wandering high and low, far and wide, until he makes a remarkable and reassuring discovery.

First-time author Viviane Schwarz and first-time illustrator Joel Stewart have created a world both unusual and familiar - a world where there’s a special place for everyone, right under our noses.

About this title

About the Author:

Viviane Schwarz and Joel Stewart met dressed as ghosts one Halloween, and have lovingly haunted each other ever since. Of THE ADVENTURES OF A NOSE, Viviane Schwarz says, "We wanted to tell children how important everyone is, and how you don’t need to try hard to fit in or be special. One day I said for some reason or another that noses are particularly nice things, and Joel agreed. He drew a dancing nose, and then a parachuting one, and lots more doing all kinds of things - and always the Nose seemed to be in the middle of a face. I said, 'I wonder if the Nose knows that.' That was when we realized we had found a hero for our story." Viviane Schwarz and Joel Stewart live together in Cornwall, England, with a crocheted horse and several fish.

From Publishers Weekly:

Magritte, in a whimsical mood, might have done these charming paintings of a disembodied nose who seeks "a place where I can fit in, and stick out." The Nose, a pale and fleshy triangle, stands upright on two slim legs (one from each nostril) that wear tasteful gray flannel pants and brown dress shoes. Collages of maps, menus and rail tickets suggest how far the restless Nose roves in search of his ideal spot; in delicate pencil sketches and squarish color illustrations, the Nose poses in green landscapes and on street corners. This tale from a first-time author-illustrator team gets the tone just right. Schwarz's understated text conveys alienation; the Nose yearns for a sense of belonging. Meanwhile, Stewart's ingenious portraits show that everywhere the Nose goes, he unwittingly creates the illusion of a face. While enjoying a good book at the library (" `This one smells of ink, and this one smells of dust,' he thinks"), the Nose sits between reading lamps that resemble green-lidded eyes; the open pages on his lap suggest a white mustache, ... la Arcimboldo. When the Nose performs a "beautiful sneezing dance," symmetrical theater curtains recall a red mask; when he wanders through a market, two orange squash simulate eyes and a broad red sombrero indicates lips. In the end, the Nose reclines on a daybed (the bulging headrest forms a melancholy brow ridge) and a therapist reassures him, "Don't you see? The whole world fits perfectly around you... because you are a Nose!" Thanks to the surreal, captivating images, the diagnosis is as plain as, well, you know. Ages 6-up.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Candlewick
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0763616745
• ISBN 13: 9780763616748
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Stewart Joel