Informational Picture Book: A Rock Is Lively

Title: A Rock Is Lively
Author: Dianna Hutts Aston
Illustrator: Sylvia Long
Publication: 2012

I loved rocks as a kid. I remember going on field trips and I would always come home with those little felt bags full of "pick your own gems." You could look through a pill of beautiful colored gems in the gift shop and pick as many as you could to fit in the bag. Therefore, my fascination with rocks and gemstones lead me to pick up this book, A Rock Is Lively, what a cool title, right!!

My favorite part about this book is definitely the illustrations. They are so colorful and lively - they just brighten my day looking at them. When you open the book, the reader sees the beautiful cobalt blue that's inside a crystalized gemstone. It's so soothing, calming and inviting. It makes me want to read on about rocks. I believe the illustrations do a great job of making a topic most people would think are boring -- rocks -- and makes it interesting, intriguing and captivating!!

Another great literary method used in Aston's book is repetition. She starts each page with "A rock is..." and presents a different topic on each one. This helps the reader know what to expect when reading and makes it fun, in anticipation of what will be brought up next. Aston presents the heading in cursive writing and then the informational text in normal text. This helps break up the information and makes it easier for the reader to identify the heading from the body text and captions.

All in all, this book would make me want to learn and research more about rocks. And it made a somewhat boring topic, interesting and so colorful, I thought I was looking at a book about rainbows. The page below was one of my favorites. I would definitely use this book (and her other informational books) in my classroom to intrigue and interest students who may be apprehensive about informational books.

Aren't the illustrations gorgeous!?! How could you not want to read this book?? Above, a little boy reads one of the pages of the book, A Rock Is Lively.