Hope for the Flowers [Hardcover]

Trina Paulus (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1973

Hope's theme of life, moving through seeming death to a new and more beautiful life, has touched the hearts of millions of people. Hope for the Flowers is for young and old, lovers, husbands and wives. It's a book to learn to read with, or to comfort those who are dying or grieving. In the tale, the caterpillar heroes, Stripe and Yellow, want something more from life than eating and growing bigger. They get caught up in a "caterpillar pillar," a squirming mass of bodies, each determined to reach a top so far away it can't be seen. Finally disillusioned, they discover that the way for the caterpillars to find their particular "more," who they really are, is to enter the cocoon and "...risk for the butterfly." Hope for the Flowers has helped people gain the courage to leave jobs, change their lives and explore their love for another human being. Two million copies in print.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 7 UpAThe ageless, timeless story of caterpillars, Strip and Yellow, unfolds as the author, Trina Paulus, reads it with as much enthusiasm as she had when it was originally published 25 years ago. It is a very simple story of life, death, goals, alternatives, anxiety, hope, and becoming which can be used by students on many levels, with each person gleaning an appropriate moral. Paulus' speech is gentle, and her belief in the story is shown in her very expressive voice. She enunciates very clearly, has good pacing, and changes tone and speech for the different characters. Short, pleasant musical interludes provide appropriate breaks between each chapter and set the mood for upcoming events. On Side 2 Paulus discusses the background for the story from the events in her life and the importance of various symbols used in the plot. Purchase for anyone who has challenges to overcomeAthis story could have as much of an audience as Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
Claudia Moore, W.T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

A wonderful new myth book. -- Woman's Day

I read it with deep appreciation for its message and for Trina Paulus' skill in communicating in words and pictures. -- Coretta Scott King

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Paulist Press (January 1973)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809101742
• ISBN-13: 978-0809101740
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (110 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #144,510 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Impossible to Review, April 13, 2001

By 

Elderbear (Loma Linda, Aztlan) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Hope for the Flowers (Paperback)

Reviewing Hope for the Flowers is like trying to review a butterfly. Impossible. Granted, one can list features & salient points, but no collection of words can pass on the joyful experience of watching a butterfly alight upon a buttercup on a warm spring afternoon.

No better description than the one on the cover: "a tale--partly about life, partly about revolution and lots about hope for adults and others (including caterpillars who can read)".

Once again I find myself at a place in life where the struggle to climb to the top of the heap overwhelms me on a daily basis. Once again, I needed to take this book off the shelf (I have several copies--any time I see one at a garage sale or used book store, I buy it--ready to give away), blow away the dust, and inhale the refreshing message of liberation.

Hope for the Flowers does more to puncture bourgeois denial than any Marxist treatise ever could. It cuts to the radical more deeply than the Anarchists can approach. This blessed fable challenges us to embrace the truly important and to become who we really are, instead of pursuing the carrots dangled in front of us by our Corporate Masters.

Five stars for wonder. Five stars for beauty. Five stars for importance. If you haven't read this book lately, chances are you need it in your life today.

(If you'd like to dialogue about this review, please click the "about me" link above & drop me email. Thanks!)

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hope for life..., November 24, 1999

By 

Karen - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hope for the Flowers (Hardcover)

One of my sons school counselors read this book at a tea. I went with my sons girlfriend who didn't have a mother. The book touched me... and her. Since that time, I have given this book to anyone who needed to believe in themselves. I still believe it always touches me more than the person I give the book too... because it always makes me remember there is hope... for whatever you want in life. My favorite "personal quote" to my children..."Live each day as a wonderful new adventure in your life... YOU write the story!" This book gives you the guidlines of writing your own story, or how to live the mistake of allowing others to write it for you. A great gift of inspiration!

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic, November 15, 2002

By 

BeachReader (Delaware) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hope for the Flowers (Paperback)

This is a book of such hope and love and comfort. I just finished reading it for perhaps the tenth time and am now jotting down the names of people to whom I want to give it as a Christmas gift. I have given away so many copies already.

This lovely and insightful story is one that readers can turn to in times of confusion, sorrow, or fear....any time that they need comfort, courage, and inspiration or when one is searching for answers in life's turmoil. It is about what can happen if we just persevere and be the best that we can possibly be; about balance in our lives; about what is important and what is not.

This is a book for all ages because the messages in it can be interpreted at all levels of understanding. I am not usually one who is fond of a lot of symbolism in books, but in this one, the symbolism worked for me.