Rocks In Her Head

I came across a really cool book that I just loved and I shared it with Isaac and a lit group I am participating in. It is a concept book, but a very unique one. As I told a teacher the other day, not all picture books are created equal and this one definitely has an edge.

If Rocks Could Sing by Leslie McGuirk uses rocks that the author collected over a ten year period of time to illustrate the letters of the alphabet and the object or concept that the author chose to have them represent. All of the rocks were found along the shore, mostly near the author's home in Florida. The rocks and other, mostly natural, elements are photographed in creative vignettes. Some letters are connected to something concrete (B is for Bird), while others have a more abstract relationship to their concept (J is for Joy represented by large and small fish shaped rocks).

The book is visually stunning, but what I found even more intriguing was the author's dedication to the project. Spending over a decade of your life slowly building toward a goal, the last bit of it waiting to happen upon the perfect rock for that last letter (I think it was "k") is commitment that few people can relate to.

And did I mention all of the rocks were found on the beach? Makes me want to go to Florida and escape the cold.