“A rock is a rock.
It’s sand, pebble, stone.
Each rock tells a story
a tale all its own.”
This is how the lovely nonfiction picture book we are sharing today begins. I discovered A Rock Can Be and the other books in the Can Be series by Laura Purdie Salas (Water Can Be, A Leaf Can Be) at our library. I was first drawn by the beachy summer cover and the lovely illustrations I found inside created by Violeta Dabija.
This series combines two things I want more of in the books I share with my kiddos: science and poetry! Rhyming couplets and the warm, colorful illustrations connect seamlessly to show us all the places rocks can be found hiding in plain sight all over the natural world. Some are obvious and expected, but some help us enlarge our imagination and expand our ideas about what exactly a rock can be! A rock can be … a dinosaur fossil, a piece of art, or even help a chicken digest its feed.
This book loosely moves through the different seasons and ends with a lovely spread showing harvest and snow, so I think it makes a great transition book as we move into the last weeks of summer. The lyrical style is simple enough to introduce geology to preschool age children, but the book also contains a glossary and expanded section in the back containing facts, suggestions for further reading, and fun ideas for using rocks (like hopscotch!) that would make this a fun read for elementary aged children as well. It definitely made me want to re-start my childhood rock collection, or go on a hunt for that perfect rock to skip.
Little Extras:
I was delighted to find a teaching guide on the author’s website here
And this awesome Pinterest board with extra activities and STEM projects
Also Check out the book trailer below!
