If You Find a Rock

Why It's On Our Shelf

This book takes something completely ordinary - rocks - and shows how they can be skipping rocks, hiding rocks, chalk rocks, splashing rocks. The photographs by Barbara Hirsch Lember show real rocks and real children interacting with them. What I love about this is that it teaches kids to look at the world with curiosity and imagination. A rock isn't just a rock, it's what you do with it or what it means to you. The poetic text invites contemplation rather than rushing through, which is rare. It encourages the kind of outdoor exploration that seems to be disappearing, where kids just poke around and notice things.