A super read! And we've all waited a long time for this one!

Teaching Pre K-8, May 2001

Our own Carol Hurst has two children's books - her first children's books - being released this April. Her very first, a novel for middle grades and up, is Through the Lock, published by Houghton Mifflin. Her second book is a picture book, Rocks In His Head, published by Greenwillow Books.

This is the story of Carol's father's lifelong passion for rocks. And it's wonderful.

The pacing of the spare prose is very much that of a storyteller telling a tale. Perhaps because we know Carol so well we heard her rich storyteller's voice as we read.

We were totally engaged from the opening words, "Some people collect stamps. Some people collect coins or dolls or bottle caps. When he was a boy, my father collected rocks."

We could go into the use of non-fiction like this in the classroom. We could talk about the fact that this book can be used at many grade levels. But the truth of the matter is you'll just plain love this book and so will your kids. Read our interview with Carol as featured author of the month (page 44). We'll review Carol's novel in the fall.

But, now back to Rocks... James Stevenson's art is marvelous. Carol told us that Stevenson was pretty much on the mark when he drew the various characters, though he had never met nor seen pictures of them. That's Stevenson's talent.

This 32-page story captures and celebrates a man's life and his character with very few descriptive words. That's Carol's talent.