Our Winning Book Synopsis
Our 2022 Giverny Award winner offers a different perspective of time and Earth events. Colorful illustrations accompany a conversation between a rock, a tree, a beetle, and a hummingbird as the rock recounts her long ago adventures.
Because Old Rock has been sitting in the middle of a pine forest for a long time, Tall Pine, Hummingbird, and Spotted Beetle assume that Old Rock must be bored. Old Rock tells a different story, though!
Old Rock recounts flying from a volcano while being born, and then meeting several types of dinosaurs—both plant eaters and meat eaters. Old Rock remembers how the Earth cooled, and how she journeyed across the landscape within a glacier. When the ice melted, Old Rock was left perched on top of a ridge with an incredible view of Earth and the sky.
That wasn’t the end of Old Rock’s journey, however. When an earthquake shook the land, Old Rock somersaulted down into a valley and watched the grass grow, the lakes form, and the mastodons wander around. One mastodon even stopped to sit on Old Rock!
The Earth changed again, and the pine forest began to grow. Old Rock saw a pinecone fall, and a pine seed sprout—that small seedling would grow into Tall Pine! Old Rock now enjoys watching Tall Pine sway in the wind, hearing Spotted Beetle describe what he has seen, and visualizing the places that Hummingbird has visited. Tall Pine, Hummingbird, and Spotted Beetle now agree that Old Rock sits in a wonderful spot.
Old Rock (is not boring) incorporates several science concepts, especially geologic time and the rock cycle. A resource page at the end of the story provides additional information as it places Old Rock’s adventures with dinosaurs, glaciers, and mastodons within a time scale.
Our 2022 Giverny book is written and illustrated by Deb Pilutti, a graphic designer and toy creator who now focuses upon children’s books. Pilutti describes her illustrative style as “quirky or humorous” and works with a laptop, paints, pencils, and crayons to create her books.
We predict our youngest readers will find this geologic perspective fascinating. We also suspect children, when encountering rocks in their daily lives, will view them differently after reading Old Rock (is not boring).
