Rick the Rock of Room 214
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
Even rocks have big dreams in this sweet and wacky picture book for fans of Aaron Reynolds and Mac Barnett about a display rock who longs to explore the great outdoors!
Rick is a rock. For as long as he can remember, he’s lived on the Nature Finds shelf in Room 214 alongside an acorn, some moss, and a piece of bark. One day, the teacher shows the class what rocks do outdoors, and Rick is captivated. Exploding out of volcanos? Plunging off cliffs? Now Rick’s determined to get outside—after all, he’s a rock, and rocks are made for adventure.
But when Rick does make his way into the great outdoors, he finds it’s not quite what he imagined—and that sometimes the greatest adventure of all is being a friend.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Rick, a lumpy gray rock with googly eyes and a sweet smile, has been sitting on Room 214's Nature Finds shelf "for as long as he can remember" while on-the-move human students, portrayed with various skin tones, have all the fun, drawing and reading and singing. During a geology unit, Rick learns that his kind "hold up the world," and becomes convinced that he's made for adventure, just like the rocks that form imposing outcroppings and exploding volcanoes. Hitching a ride in a student's backpack, Rick, who sports a gold star and a green splodge, lands among a whole field of outdoor rocks, asking, "When do we explode out of volcanoes?" But the rocks, who "have never had glitter glue spilled on them," are sedentary in the extreme, wanting nothing more than to sit in silence ("We already exploded. Other times. We're done with that now"). Mixing laugh-out-loud narration with comics-style framing, previous collaborators Falatko and Chan (The Great Indoors) earn a gold star for comedy cooperation. And by restoring Rick to the shelf with a new understanding of how he inspires the students' learning and art-making, the creators show that adventure is really what you make it—and who you make it with. Ages 4–8. Author's agent: Jennifer Laughran, Andrea Brown Literary. Illustrator's agent: Rebecca Sherman, Writers House.
