J's Reviews > Backpack Explorer: Rock Hunt: What Will You Find?

Rockhounding is something that comes naturally to members of our family, especially when considering we would go camping in the mountains. Although I can't tell one type of rock or mineral from another one I can still say they attract my sight whether shiny or plain-seeming so this book was a definite shoo-in for us.

The book states that it comes with stickers in the back, which unfortunately is a disadvantage of ARC readers. Anyway these stickers are meant to encourage readers to search out where these stickers are meant to be located and have them match up with that particular location found in the book. At the same time the book also encourages readers to be more interactive by implying various rock-related activities, participating in rock games and at the same time providing questions to make young readers think a bit more about these elements of nature. Furthermore readers are also encouraged to participate in a slew of arts and crafts types of activities that include clearly defined steps for those who may not know where to start

At the same time between all the crafts projects and interactive elements readers will be provided with more information exploring rocks in general whether it is their size, the three main categories, famous rock structures that can be seen by nature-explorers and how to test aspects of these various rocks/minerals using the Mohs Scale of Hardness. Other facts include providing readers with terminology and pronunciations for other words they may not know.

Meanwhile the book has for its illustrative means colored photographs, maps and other similar diagrams to help children whether it is providing them with a map of geographic terms, displaying various colors or even providing examples of the various rocks. Unfortunately most of the photos used were stock images and as such still have their stock mark blemishing the page.

Another aspect I didn't like is the text was put in all kinds of shapes and forms thus some sentences were normal but others curved around while making the reading a little bit harder unless you zoomed in. As such some readers may find that more than distracting when reading the book.

And finally my last complaint, which also helped to provide the book with such low stars, was that the book mentions that if readers come across obsidian it can come. And then on the next page it encourages readers to touch all the rocks they find when some precautions should be taken again thanks to rocks like obsidian or even toxic rocks that fortunately many people won't come across but there is a chance.

All in all it was rather a decent book and even with it being busy it would be a nice starter book for the children in your life who are avid rock collectors or as an addition to personal science library collections. Whether you use this book for learning, for inspired nature projects or both just remember to help remind young readers to be careful in their handling of rocks and minerals.