When You Find the Right Rock

Chronicle Books | 978-1797214580

I had been anticipating the publication of WHEN YOU FIND THE RIGHT ROCK and finally had the great pleasure of reading it a few weeks ago while attending NCTE/Boston. What a beauty! I have loved author Mary Lyn Ray’s books for years and adored Felicita Sala‘s work (even before I had the good fortune to have her illustrate two of my books).

It’s the kind of book I know immediately I must add to my collection as inspiration for my own writing, a mix of the vibe I get from two of my favorite classic picture books — Margaret Wise Brown’s THE IMPORTANT BOOK and Ruth Krauss’s A HOLE IS TO DIG.  I look forward to sharing this book with writers in the classes I teach.

Below is one of my favorite spreads. I love the way the words stack up beside the tower of rocks! And speaking of the rocks, I enjoyed watching this video demonstration of Felicita’s process of creating the paper for these piles of stone.

There’s something so soothing about this meditation on the goodness and beauty of rocks…

“Some people think you’re doing nothing,

same as they might think a rock is doing nothing.

But you and the rock

know they’d be wrong…”

“If sometimes it happens that the world

seems not to notice how big you really

are, don’t forget those mountain rocks.

Some of their big goes unseen, too.

But it’s still there. Like yours.”

If you’re a fan of picture books as I am, perhaps you’ll enjoy perusing Mary Lyn Ray’s website. I loved learning more about the inspiration behind her writing and her ideas around the question of “Why picture books?” Here’s a snippet that resonates with me:

“I wish picture books weren’t so often regarded only as learner books, thin books or baby books but were, instead, seen as a different–and very special–way of telling (and experiencing) a story. They invite a different kind of reading and filling in around the edges, a different exercise of curiosity and imagination and creative thinking. They have their own smell and heft. And they are, besides, small flat packages of art: very real and sophisticated art any of us would be astounded to receive as a gift. And there it all is, for the taking, for any child (and those who read with or to that child).”

I hope you’ll check out WHEN YOU FIND THE RIGHT ROCK soon and maybe even pair the book with a set of watercolors and have fun making your own painted rock illustrations!