A pocket full of rocks

Kristin Mahoney

Book - 2025

"A sweet and soulful celebration of how a child's imagination can transform ordinary objects into extraordinary treasures. You can do a lot with a pocket full of rocks... Rocks make excellent chairs for fairies, they are perfect for writing your name on the sidewalk, or just to hold in your hand when you need reassurance. And so the rocks pile up-- until the season turns and you need to make room for pockets full of petals. And shells. And acorns! Each season's treasure is kept and curated and loved, until it's time to give the treasures away and make room for new things to come. A Pocket Full of Rocks showcases how a creative child can see big possibilities in the smallest things. It's about noticing, collecting, a...ppreciating, and sharing the wonders around us every day"--

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Children's Room New Shelf Show me where

jE/Mahoney
1 / 2 copies available
Location Call Number   Status
Children's Room New Shelf jE/Mahoney (NEW SHELF) Due Mar 17, 2025
Children's Room New Shelf jE/Mahoney (NEW SHELF) Checked In
Subjects
Genres
Picture books
Published
New York, NY : Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children's Books [2025]
Language
English
Main Author
Kristin Mahoney (author)
Other Authors
E. B. Goodale (illustrator)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
40 unnumbered pages : color illustrations ; 26 cm
ISBN
9780593428542
9780593428559
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

ldquo;You can do a lot with a pocket full of rocks," muses a child on a snowy day. Their mother comments that rocks will make the child's jacket dirty. Dad asks where their other mitten will go, and their older sister calls them "just ordinary rocks." But the protagonist knows that their rocks will make excellent chairs for diminutive fairies. Besides, it's comforting to feel them in their pocket. In spring, the child collects fragrant flower petals falling from trees. In summer, their pockets are filled with seashells from the beach, and in fall, acorns on the ground. As the seasons cycle through again, the child can count on their family members to find objections, yet nothing dissuades them from filling their pockets with new treasures. And in the end, the child uses their finds to make gifts for Dad, Mom, and their sister. Mahoney's free-verse, direct address text captures the child's winsome nature as well as their unshakable determination to collect the curiosities that nature provides. One part observation and two parts inspiration, the magical artwork was created using monotype, crayon, oil paint, watercolor, collage, and digital elements. A picture book rooted in a childlike sense of intertwined fantasy and reality.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

"You can do a lot with a pocket full of rocks," begins this picture book debut by Mahoney (Elfie Unperfect), as Goodale (The Moon Remembers) draws a parka-clad child with light brown skin bending down to collect a stone in the snow. Pocketing the treasure, the youth's face remains tranquil as family members remark: "Your mom will say the rocks are making your coat dirty." The child, though, knows that the stones "are chairs for fairies to rest on.... They are exactly the thing for writing your name on the sidewalk when you don't have chalk." The rocks are swapped for petals in spring, seashells in summer, and acorns in fall, each grouping placed in a jar rendered, like the child's pockets, as transparent. Goodale creates gently textured natural backdrops while drawing human figures with simple, skilled outlines. Many rich threads intersect in this seasonal meditation, including the feeling of delight and abundance supplied by natural objects, a child's inner confidence and imagination even in the face of commentary, and the anchoring effect of an object that's "just there in your pocket when you need something to touch, gathered and solid and cool." Ages 3--7. Author's agent: Sarah Burnes, Gernert Co. Illustrator's agent: Lori Kilkelly, LK Literary. (Jan.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Horn Book Review

Throughout the year, a child collects various objects from nature, finding comfort and creative inspiration in them. This endearing account begins in winter when the protagonist collects rocks. Deftly employing a second-person narration ("You can do a lot with a pocket full of rocks"), Mahoney introduces a pattern she follows throughout the book. The kid's parents and sister express skepticism, but the youngster pays them no mind. After all, these stones make perfect chairs for the fairies living in the child's imagination. In the ensuing sequences, the child pockets flower petals in spring, shells in summer, and acorns in autumn. The story has an effective cumulative quality to it as the protagonist places the objects into a jar at the end of each season. Mahoney carries the narrative to a satisfying resolution when the young one repurposes the finds as special gifts for each family member. Goodale's striking mixed-media illustrations perfectly convey the child's curiosity about worlds both natural and fantastical, as well as evoking the essence of each season. In a playful touch, Goodale often gives readers a see-through view inside pockets. A quiet yet vibrant celebration of nature, art, imagination, and individuality. Brian E. WilsonMarch/April 2025 p.51 (c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

Throughout the year, a youngster explores all the things one can do with a pocketful of nature. Anyone who washes a child's clothes learns an important lesson--check the pockets first. But where an adult might find a jumble of rocks and other detritus, a child sees a world of comfort and possibility. Told in the second person with a repeating structure, the story follows a little one who gathers up treasures from nature and puts them to imaginative use. In the winter, a pocketful of rocks becomes "chairs for fairies to rest on." Spring flower petals are transformed into perfume. Summer brings shells that sound like the ocean, and fall acorns make "perfect hats for the fairies now that the weather is getting cool." At the end of each season, the child transfers the treasures into a jar to make room for the next discoveries. When the year ends, the young protagonist gifts them to the rest of the family. With an empty jar and a pocketful of rocks, the cycle starts again. A sour note in an otherwise sweet story is the dismissiveness of the protagonist's family. With each new pocketful, Mom, Dad, and the child's sister look up from their own activities to discourage the young narrator; petals will wilt, and collecting shells brings in sand. Still, the solitary child finds a way to make space for creativity. Soft, colorful illustrations provide quiet beauty. Characters are brown-skinned. A meditative homage to the creative universe inside a child's mind--and pockets.(Picture book. 4-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.