The Rare, Tiny Flower

Ages 4 to 8, Grades P to 3

The Rare, Tiny Flower illustrates a deeply touching and thoughtful poem by Kitty O’Meara that, in the form of a parable, celebrates difference, tolerance, and unity. 

The poem features a mysterious flower that looks different to each viewer, which leads to strife as everyone insists that their vision is “right.” Leaders and even a botanist are unable to agree on the nature of the flower—it takes a young girl to point out that the flower is, in fact, quite multidimensional. Remarkably, she has the ability to be heard by the squabbling masses, who then see beyond their fighting and commit to connecting with one another. 

O’Meara’s thoughtful poem includes people realizing and voicing this important lesson:

One day, a very special flower blooms in a forest.

A special and unusual flower!

No one can agree on what color it is.

That’s because it looks different to different people.

And that’s when the fighting starts…

It takes a young girl to point out the truth.

But will the people listen?

About the Author

Kitty O’Meara lives near Madison, Wisconsin, with her husband, Phillip Hagedorn, their five rescue dogs, three cats, gardens, and books. Formerly a middle school writing and literature teacher and hospital and hospice chaplain, she is currently a spiritual director and has been a lifelong writer and artist. She has been called “the poet laureate of the pandemic” based on her wildly popular, widely circulated, and hopeful poem about the Covid-19 pandemic. That poem is illustrated and presented in book form in And the People Stayed Home, her first print book, published by Tra Publishing. The Rare, Tiny Flower will be her second published print book.

Quim Torres is an award-winning illustrator and author based in Barcelona. He has illustrated several children’s books, including the recent titles La noche más noche, Alera i Perot, How Grandpa Disappeared, Quel mari pour Jolie souris?, Contes et légendes d'Espagne, and Tant de gust senyor Calders, and he is the author of the middle grade novel Constel·lacions. He has studied art therapy and Gestalt psychology, and he teaches workshops in which drawing becomes a means of self-discovery.