About the Holiday

November is Picture Book Month, a month to remind us of the importance of picture books as a source of learning, growing and connecting for adults and children alike. While every day is a day to remember and celebrate our love for picture books, we challenge you this November to check out a few new titles, to share a book with a loved one, and keep on reading! To celebrate this month, we highlight a story that draws children and adults together in a meditation on the importance of connection, exploration, play and time for contemplation—all tied together by rocks!

I’m thrilled to welcome back Dorothy Levine, who has recently graduated from college and always lends a fresh, astute, and thoughtful perspective to her reviews. To learn more about Dorothy see our Welcome page.

Review by Dorothy Levine

When You Find the Right Rock 

Written by Mary Lyn Ray | Illustrated by Felicita Sala

 

Calling all collectors, connectors, climbers, and thinkers. Find a seat to get cozy in as we mosey our way through the narrative of When You Find the Right Rock. Some of us tend to walk with our eyes cued into the scenery around us. Perhaps you are one to scan the ground for treasures as you walk or skim the skyline for birds. In a world of go-go-go, children and adults alike are often discouraged from taking the time to pause and ground themselves in place, to notice the details of the wide world that connect us all.

One of these connectors is rocks, particularly the biggest rock of all, the one that lives “far under grass and trees / and houses and schools,” the rock that Lyn Ray describes as “one big enough for / everyone to stand on.”

The story begins as a continuation of the title sentence: “You may try to go around it, / Or to just keep thinking whatever / you were thinking.” Told from the second person “you” view, readers are immediately able to place themselves in this story. Artist Felicita Sala depicts a young child staring out at us, grasping hands with an adult and, facing forward, in a rush toward their destination.

“But it’s hard to ignore a rock. You can tell, right off, that big ones are to climb on. That’s their way of inviting you to know them—and to see where you are.” When the child gestures to a large group of boulders, her adult puts a hand on her hip. Regardless, the child begins to climb and is met by others halfway up the rock. As the children climb, readers are lifted onwards and outwards from the original illustrated narrative, as Lyn Ray takes us through different sizes of rocks and some of the many fun and creative possibilities of what a rock can be and do.

The purposes range from playful (to build a room of a pretend house on the beach) to explorative (“to show you / what heavy feels like”) and even philosophical (medium rocks are for perching on to see how your view of the world can change). Each spread shows a diverse cast of children. All these options hold equal weight. Lyn Ray writes: “Sometimes people might think you’re doing nothing, / same as they might think the rock is doing nothing. / But you and the rock know they’d be wrong.”

The story then zooms out to a greater metaphorical sense of finding and grounding oneself in a world of shifting social relations and chaos. Lyn Ray compares finding something special or surprising within yourself (“just when you were maybe feeling sort of ordinary”) to finding a surprising rock in a less exciting bunch of pebbles. Readers are encouraged to reflect and hold on to these moments of inner finding: “You’ll want to keep that discovery in the place inside you where you remember certain things—Same as, maybe, you keep your special rocks somewhere.”

Readers are advised to take the time to “say hi to each rock you meet.” Because maybe if you find a rock that feels right in your hand, “you can feel like you’re holding hands with all the wide world.” On the final spread, we return to the scene of the child with the adult. This time, the child holds a small rock in one hand and rushes to hold the hand of her adult with her other. The two smile at each other, caught in a moment of connection.

Illustrator Felicita Sala draws readers into the magic of rocks and relationships with others with detailed watercolor and colored pencil spreads that draw our focus from tiny to large scale as the words follow suit. Brightly colored pages are contrasted with darker-toned images where a rock or the child protagonist are the only ones highlighted. The illustrations masterfully weave in an under-narrative of the child and adult not told in the words, but on an emotional journey of their own, even in the singular one walk depicted.

The simplicity of the cover text, with the title displayed in the middle of a jumble of colorful textured rocks of different shapes and sizes—they even bump out of the cover in a glossed shine!—and the small choice to simplify the language to “text by” and “art by” rather than written and illustrated reflects the intentionality behind the beautiful simplicity of Mary Lyn Ray’s story as a whole; you don’t need to be a fancy geologist to admire rocks; you don’t need a reason beyond joy and admiration to stop and look at the world around you. Just like you don’t need to be a child to enjoy a picture book or a rock-lover to enjoy the story of When You Find the Right Rock.

Ages 3 – 8

Chronicle Books, 2024 | ISBN 978-1797214580

About the Author

Mary Lyn Ray has written many acclaimed books for children, including Stars, Pumpkins, Mud, The Thank You Book, and Go to Sleep, Little Farm. She lives in South Danbury, New Hampshire, on an old farm where there are big rocks and pocket rocks, medium-sized and big, big rocks—all just right for saying hello to. Visit Mary at marylynray.com.

About the Illustrator

Felicita Sala is a self-taught illustrator. She studied philosophy and languages in Australia but then decided she wanted to create pictures. Since moving to Italy, she has worked on a few stop-motion animation projects along with her husband, Gianluca, but her passion lies in making picture books. She gets inspired by nature, children, mid-century illustration, folk art, and architecture. She lives in Rome with Gianluca and their daughter, Nina. Visit Felicita at felicitasala.com.

Picture Book Month Activity

Rock Exploration and Collection Ideas

 

On her website Early Learning Ideas, Jennifer Hier offers kids and adults a variety of ideas for ways to explore and collect rocks with children. Check out her post: 20 Easy Activities with Rocks that Will Make Learning Fun.

You can purchase When You Find the Right Rock at these booksellers

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Bookshop (to support your local independent bookstore)

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