Rock
by Laurel Croza; illus. by Matt James
Primary    Groundwood    44 pp.
3/25    9781773069487    $19.99
e-book ed.  9781773069500    $16.99

The team behind I Know Here (rev. 5/10) and From There to Here (rev. 5/14) presents a story about standing resolute in the face of a bully who seeks to diminish one’s self-worth. A loquacious gull finds a rock on a quiet beach and asks what it is. “I am a rock,” it asserts. The gull spends the rest of the book challenging the rock, telling it that it’s not a rock (“I see you as a pebble”), that it could be tossed in the water (“you will sink…there is no guarantee you will find your way back”), and that it’s not anything special. “I am a rock,” it responds, over and over. James’s soft-edged paintings on acetate, wood, Masonite, and cardboard capture the essence of water, sand, and sky; a child meanders on the beach in the background, a visual break from the gull’s relentless harassment. The high-concept messaging may fly over children’s heads, but grounding the story in a lakeside setting gives them something concrete to focus on, and their curiosity about the child in the background will help keep pages turning. Eventually the child spots the rock, chases the gull away, and uses the rock to shape a heart on the sand—a rewarding and cathartic ending.

From the ">May/June 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.