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WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH A ROCK?

Name: WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH A ROCK?
Author: Pat Zietlow Miller
ISBN: 978-1-72821-763-5

by Pat Zietlow Miller ; illustrated by Katie Kath ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 12, 2021

A delightful invitation.

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Rocks are varied and versatile—not unlike good friends.

Rocks often go ignored, the narrator remarks as a blue-haired White child explores along a stream. The text continues in second person as it explains what those who notice the “magic” underfoot know: You can do a lot with a rock. You can kick it down the street, following it along. You can skip it, drop it, collect more, and sort them. You can study them, use them for art, keep them, or share them with a good friend, then make new rock memories with that friend. The story’s opening draws readers right into the world of rock appreciation, as though it’s a secret society that’s free to join. The child’s adventures with rocks and making friends form a visual story that complements the conversational, conspiratorial text. By the end, the story widens its scope to sweet life lessons as it turns effortlessly toward friendship and the wisdom transferable from rock discovery to friend discovery (“Some sparkle right away, while others seem ordinary at first, but have treasure deep inside”). Endmatter offers information, advice, and further reading about rocks and rock collecting; the beautiful endpapers with artistic renderings of labeled samples of different kinds of rock are worth perusing in and of themselves. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A delightful invitation. (Picture book. 3-8)

Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-72821-763-5

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

Review Posted Online: July 13, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

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LUPE LOPEZ
by e.E. Charlton-Trujillo & Pat Zietlow Miller ; illustrated by Joe Cepeda

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ONE CAN BE
by Pat Zietlow Miller ; illustrated by Annie Cron

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UNSTOPPABLE JOHN
by Pat Zietlow Miller ; illustrated by Jerry Jordan

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LOVE FROM THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR

by Eric Carle ; illustrated by Eric Carle ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 15, 2015

Safe to creep on by.

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Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.

In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.

Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)

Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap

Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE FOOD?
edited by Eric Carle

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WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE BUG?
edited by Eric Carle

- BOOK REVIEW
MY FIRST I SEE YOU
by Eric Carle ; illustrated by Eric Carle

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)