Sand to Stone and Back Again by Nancy Bo Flood - Day One

Stars: ***1/2

Summary: Sand to Stone illustrates the life cycle of sandstone for curious young minds. Open these pages to discover the amazing shapes, colors, and textures natural forces have left behind in the Desert Southwest.

Sand to Stone wasn't exactly what I was expecting and to be honest, at first I didn't like it. However I've had a month to review it even more and have come to realize I wasn't being fair when I read the book the first time. For one, I misunderstood the age range of the book. I sometimes forget that picture books aren't just for young children. The author's website says Ages 6-12 but Amazon.com says ages 9-12.

Unless your child is REALLY into sandstone, this book isn't one that you'd buy for your child to read on their own. This is more of a book for teachers or homeschool parents to use with their children. As you can probably tell based on the ages, this would be good for children in grades 4-7.

The author Nancy Bo Flood and photographer Tony Kuyper did and awesome job together. The text is lyrical:

"Sometimes I am a desert, a soft dune resting, or a tough old butte."

"Crash! Slabs of stone slide off cliffs, change walls into caves, alcoves, or arches."

The photographs are breathtaking as you can see from the photos included in this post. These photos are Copyright Tony Kuyper and are used with permission. These are the actual photos, before they were cropped for the book.


Links of Interest: Nancy Bo Flood (author), Tony Kuyper (photographer),

Other Reviews: (in this case, others participating in tour)
SMS Book Reviews, Never Jam Today, SmallWorld Reads, Our Big Earth Media Co., Whispers of Dawn, Cafe of Dreams, The Hungry Readers, My Own Little Corner of the World, Dolce Bellezza, KidzBookBuzz.com


Buy Sand to Stone and Back Again from Amazon.com and support KidsBookBuzz!

How the Moon Regained Her Shape by Janet Ruth Heller

Stars: *****

Summary: Influenced by Native American folktales, this fascinating story deals with bullying, self-confidence, and understanding the phases of the moon. After the sun insults and bullies her, the moon gets very upset and disappears - much to the chagrin of rabbits who miss their moonlight romps. With the help of her friends, the moon gains more self-confidence each day until she is back to her full size. The "Creative Minds" section explains the phases of the moon and helps to answer those pesky questions like "why is the moon up during the day?", or "why does the shape of the moon change? Moon crafts and games supplement the understanding.

Illustrator: Ben Hodson
Sylvan Dell Publishing 2006
32 pages Ages 6-10
978-0-9764943-4-8 (Hardcover)
$15.95

As I've mentioned before (Animals are Sleeping), Sylvan Dell Publishing's motto is Science and Math Through Literature. After every story is quite a few pages of something called For Creative Minds which contains all sorts of fun and educational info and activities for further learning.

In the Creative Minds section for this book you'll find general moon observations which defines words such as phases, lunar, waxes, crescent, gibbous, full moon etc... as well as the Native American names for the moons (Wolf Moon, Grass Moon, Fruit Moon etc....) There are activities to do such as charting the moon for a month, making edible moon cookies and making a phases of the moon wheel. There is also info on how the moons orbit around the earth. There is a quick paragraph about bullies too as the sun bullies the moon in the story.

The Creative Minds section is great for kids who just love to learn and for homeschooling families who are looking for activities to do with their kids on certain subjects.

The story itself is very well done, here's an excerpt:

"The moon tried to start dancing again, but the sun's words tormented her. Her arms and legs seemed to heavy to twirl. She felt very alone in the heavens. She slowly walked along her skypath, hanging her head. Her body began to shrink until she was jus a sliver of her former self."

The book has won some awards and honours which you can see on the Sylvan Dell page for the book as well as view and print out the creative minds activities and see other helpful items such as reviews, quizzes, author interview and related websites.

Thanks to Elaine from PR By the Book for a copy of this great book.