A Rock Is Lively (Aston/Long Nature Books)

Gr 3-6—Another beauty from Aston and Long, creators of the equally eye-catching An Egg Is Quiet (2006), A Seed Is Sleepy (2007), and A Butterfly Is Patient (2011, all Chronicle). This time they take on the seemingly sedentary world of rocks and minerals, showing them to be anything but (when you know your geology). Boiling underground, freezing in space, colorful or drab, enormous or minuscule, health food (grits for gizzards), tools for prehistoric man and modern chimps, canvas for paleolithic art or construction material for the Taj Mahal-rocks get around. Aston's quiet text follows their morphings from magma to various incarnations and back again, while Long's meticulous, elegant watercolors record their astounding diversity. Rocks are "surprising" as geodes. They are "creative" when viewed as pigments for a prehistoric palette. Rocks are "lively." A handsome piece of bookmaking from the artistically rock-strewn cover to the glorious azurite endpapers, this is an elegant window into the hitherto static existence of rocks and minerals. Eye-catching and eye-opening.—Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY