Old But its Good (Hope for the Flowers)

What I thought was a children's book that my sister bought is maybe one of the greatest books that I've read up to now. I've forgotten the saying "Don't judge the book by its Cover" when I saw this book and I thought it was one of those corny books that our teachers in preschool used to read to use. Like others, I also thought that this book is a children novel the text is handwritten and there are a lot of doodled drawings. Yellow and black are all the colors that you will see on the cover of Hope for the Flowers written and illustrated by Trina Paulus.

The story started when stripe bursted from the egg and started eating up the leaves where he was born into. As he continue to eat he grew bigger and bigger. One day he stopped eating and was he bored of just eating and growing so climbed down the tree that he born into. He started exploring the world meeting other creatures. He was searching something else in life. Then he saw a group of crawlers crawling towards something. He followed the group and learned that they're aiming to the top of a column that was a pile of pushing and squirming caterpillars.

Not knowing what he might see at the top, still he joined the worms. He though he might find that something that he was looking for. As he climbed up, he learned that nobody in the pile really knew what's at the top and to get further you have to step on someone's face. This is where he met Yellow, the first caterpillar that he ever spoke with into the column. Striped tried to avoid to step to his new found friend but it was inevitable. And when he did, he really felt awful climbed down and apologized. They fell in love they decided to climb down and decided do something like crawl and nibble grass together. They happily lived together as a coupled as the days passes.

Still Stripe couldn't help to think what's at top of that pile he even visits the site regularly. He heard that there was a butterfly at the top for the folks that fell from the top. His curiosity grew and grew until he asked Yellow to give it again a try but she doesn't want to go back to the life again. Stripe left her and for his climb and made her heartsick. She wandered away from everything familiar and one saw a fellow caterpillar hanging upside down. She learned from the fellow that it was the way of becoming a butterfly. So she did what the other caterpillar did.


my favorite line in this book

Stripe did great in his second climb 'cause he was so much focused and determined this time. He reached the top and knew from other caterpillars that there was nothing to see but luckily he saw a yellow butterfly that looked very familiar to him. He somehow knew it was Yellow and on his way down he tried to tell others what's really on the top to most didn't listen. Tired and sad, Stripe crawled off to the old place where Yellow and he had romped and rest for a while. When woke up a flying yellow creature was fanning him with wings of light. The creature guided him to the cocoons and somehow he knew what to do next. Stripe became a butterfly and flew happily ever after with Yellow.

According to HFTF site, the book's inspiration was while the author was sharing comfort with a friend who just lost someone close. Ms. Paulus also believed that a lowly creeping worn can turn into a butterfly is hard to believe but we've actually seen how it's changed so we can also hope for internal transformation. She also believed that "Life is changed, not taken away".

Yellow and Stripe has bee creeping the earth and giving hope almost four decades now. According to Wiki, "Hope for the Flowers is classified as a children's novel when it was published in 1973 by Paulist Press. Ironic 'cause in the cover of the book is it clearly printed "a tale partly about life partly about revolution and lots about hope for adults and others. Kids can read but the lesson that they might only get is caterpillars do become butterflies. It maybe old but it's a good story about love, hope, patience, real revolution, and all about life. Do read "Hope for the Flowers", it might touch your lives