Horn Book (Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2015)

Accompanied by dreamy illustrations combining traditional and digital techniques, readers explore the various forms rocks take on in the world. The smooth rhyming pairs are creative and wide-reaching, ranging from "Dinosaur bone / Stepping-stone" to "Food grinder / Path winder"; simple explanations at the end clarify some of the more abstract examples. Reading list. Glos.

ALA Booklist (Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 CST 2015)

What can a rock be? "Tall mountain / Park fountain / Dinosaur bone / Stepping-stone." The ideas expressed in this picture book's pithy text are varied and wide-ranging. Each two-word phrase appears on its own page, accompanied by a luminous illustration. While some concepts will be obvious to children from the words alone, and others are made clear by the pictures, a few ("Fire sparker," "Crusty dome," "Food grinder") may need further explanation. The sometimes cryptic phrases create a natural guessing game, and an appended section offers a paragraph of text explaining each one. Moldovan illustrator Dabija contributes a series of dynamic full-page and double-page images created with traditional and digital media. Her compositions, color combinations, and use of light are particularly fine. Similar in concept to Salas and Dabija's previous picture books, A Leaf Can Be . . . (2012) and Water Can Be . . . (2014), this beautiful picture book makes an excellent classroom read-aloud, challenging children to puzzle out the ideas in the poetic phrases and to broaden their thinking about rocks.

School Library Journal (Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 CST 2015)

PreS-Gr 2 As they did in A Leaf Can Be (2012) and Water Can Be (2014), Salas and Dabija have teamed up for this third imaginative creation. Simple rhymes and verses relate various aspects of a rock, explaining how it can be used as "a hopscotch marker" or as a "fire sparker." Listeners meanwhile absorb delicious synonyms and adjectives for a rock that they may have originally thought of as an ordinary object. To help augment their imaginations and knowledge, there are appended pages where children can find a glossary, as well as learn additional facts, such as how rocks can be used to create harbors or how chickens swallow pebbles to help digest their food. Dabija uses traditional as well as digital techniques to illustrate with a bright, colorful palette that is appealing to children. Purchase for your rock hounds or where the earlier books in this series are popular. Blair Christolon, Prince William Public Library System, Manassas, VA