ALA Booklist (Sat Apr 01 00:00:00 CST 2000)

Poetic text and thoughtfully composed, handtinted photographs combine to explore the variety and purposes of rocks. There are stones for skipping across ponds, hiding tiny creatures, and crossing swift rivers. Some are large enough for climbing, and small rounded pebbles slide slowly through our fingers. Still others soothe us when we worry or grant us wishes. The best ones, however, are those that remind us of a person, a place, or a feeling. Lember's intriguing artwork is especially suited to the quiet text. From a distance, the pictures seem to be color photographs, but on closer inspection, they resemble realistic paintings. No matter the medium, the results are pleasing. A good story hour selection, especially for introducing primary geology units or setting the mood for creative writing. (Reviewed April 1, 2000)

Horn Book (Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2000)

Poetic text celebrates rocks with uncommon lyricism: flat ones to skip across the water, mossy ones that make welcome resting places, striped ones just right for wishing on. But the "best rocks of all" are memory rocks, which remind you "of a place, or a feeling, or someone important." Hand-tinted photographs have a quiet, almost dreamy quality that suits this nature reverie.

Kirkus Reviews

With hand-colored photos of grave children holding, sitting on, or clambering over rocks, Christian ( Chocolate, A Glacier Grizzly , 1997) poetically suggests picking up pebbles to see if they are skipping rocks or scraping rocks, wishing rocks or worry rocks, or perhaps just rocks with marvelous things in or under them. Lember ( The Shell Book , 1997) adds muted but natural-looking tints to soften the lines in her woodsy, idyllic outdoor scenes. Like Meredith Hooper's Pebble in My Pocket (not reviewed), this suggests to children the rewards of taking closer looks at these most commonplace of natural objects. (Picture book. 6-8)

School Library Journal

Gr 1-4-Since the dawn of time, humans have found rocks, stones, and pebbles to be subtly alluring. In a poignant, lyrical text, Christian contemplates the magnetism of an assortment of such serendipitous discoveries. From drawing ephemeral runes on the sidewalk with a "chalk rock" to the satisfying slither of a handful of "sifting rocks" and the exaltation of a "climbing rock," these common but beguiling objects are wondered about ("-you might find a rock with a stripe running all the way round it-You have a wishing rock, and you whisper what you want before you throw it"). Each two-page spread includes at least one of Lember's softly hand-tinted photos that eloquently reflect the evocative text. Insert this gem into an earth-science unit and watch as certain students drift from igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rock, and the Mohs' scale to look at their specimens with wide, remembering eyes.-Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.