Review by Booklist Review
A rock stuck under a student's shoe interrupts classroom presentations to tell its own four-billion-year-old story. The expressive, gray cartoon rock with large, round eyes starts its chatty geological tale deep underground, where it meets some of its minerals. After a tour of Earth's layers and plates and their roles in volcanoes and earthquakes, the rock explains with humorous yet informative visuals and snappy, personalized descriptions how it cycles through the three types of rock (igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic) over time. Whether blasted from a volcano, thrown onto land by a tsunami, or kicked by dinosaurs, the seemingly boring life of a rock is anything but. As the rock narrator introduces geological terms along the way, another professorial-looking rock highlights some of these terms with their definitions in blackboard fact boxes. While relating the final topic, erosion, the rock tumbles down the side of a mountain, waiting only a few million years before a student steps on it and brings the story back full circle. Concluding detailed geology and earth-science facts let readers rock on.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Just as young Luis begins a classroom presentation on a senior citizen interview, a gray, googly-eyed rock peers out from beneath the child's shoe, asking whether the students would like to hear the tale of a four-billion-year-old. The ensuing geologic origin story is chronicled by an in-no-way-stony-faced narrator who explains Earth's inexorable forces via an unstoppable parade of onomatopoeia ("KABLOOEY!"). Slivensky (This Wolf Was Different) recounts how the rock's been shaped by a variety of encounters and forces--incredible pressure and heat, volcanic explosion, tsunami, avalanche, even a visit to a pterosaur nest--until it lands on a mountain for "the past few million years" and then hitches a ride on Luis's shoe. The nonstop pace can occasionally feel overwhelming, but digitally colored drawings by Stilwell (Cake Vs. Pie) provide ample eye candy (a sedimentary rock formation is illustrated as an sweetly comic group huddle) throughout a stone-focused read that strikes a rich vein of fun. Human characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Back matter and cameos by a glasses-sporting rock provide additional info. Ages 4--8. Author's agent: Ammi-Joan Paquette, Erin Murphy Literary. Illustrator's agent: Aliza Hoover, CAT Agency. (June)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1--4--Nonfiction cloaked in fiction, geology and the rock cycle are illustrated by a jovial cartoon rock with stick figure limbs as it delves into its rich four-billion-year-old story. It's Senior Citizens Interviews Day in Luis's classroom, and before he can share his elder stories, a quirky rock speaks out from the bottom of his shoe to share its history. Hand-drawn art features children with a variety of skin tones, although it's the rock that takes center stage. Cartoonish expressions and bright colors adorn its face and the faces of other key figures, such as specific minerals, the Earth, volcanoes, mountains, and clouds. Clear text and the use of panels, white space, and fun-fact inserts are elegantly arranged to support the story and express facts. Through first-person narration and anthropomorphic characters, Slivensky and Stilwell insert human interest, humor, and connection. The incorporation of onomatopoeia and repetition emphasizes the rock cycle experience and reinforces scientific vocabulary. Back matter includes more geology facts, a pop quiz, and a list of sources. Most vocabulary is explained in context. VERDICT In a season with a lot of rock books, this is a must-purchase for nonfiction collections as rockhounds will delight in finding out how rocks are born.--Rachel Zuffa
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A student's class report about interviewing a senior citizen takes on unexpected perspective when a rock in his shoe pipes up to retrace its own four-billion-year history. Depicted in the cartoon illustrations as a small, potato-shaped pebble with googly eyes, the rocky raconteur begins by noting that it's made up of minerals such as quartz, zircon, and biotite. It then proceeds to describe a journey that began with a two-billion-year stay in Earth's mantle ("Wow, I was down there for ages"), followed by repeated exciting experiences with volcanoes (KABLOOEY!") and other geological forces--as well as transformations along the way from igneous to sedimentary to metamorphic. That the same rock can change repeatedly from one type to another may be the main lesson readers will absorb from this breezy round, though the note of self-affirmation toward the end ("I'm proud to say that I'm here, I'm me, and…I ROCK!") will never go amiss. The children cheering at the end are racially diverse, as well as plainly prepared to take in Slivensky's concluding expanded set of basic geological facts and an easy pop quiz. A quick overview, sure to leave broader views of deep time in its wake. (source list)(Informational picture book. 6-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
