A Rock Is Born: An Epic Journey Through Time

In the final images of this geological odyssey, a park ranger points out an unassuming gray rock that sits on the side of a hiking trail—a humble presence that, as Ho (A Taste of Home) and Williams (Look on the Bright Side) examine in the preceding pages, is actually a time-traveling witness to and participant in millennia of dramatic transformations. Minimalist, measured text and cartooned scenes that feature multiple cross sections walk readers through timescales beyond human experience, emphasizing how a rock goes through multiple iterations: “Heat melts it./ Pressure shapes it./ The rock reforms.../ ...into something new.” The work captures various forces that impact the rock as it moves, from its first appearance on the side of a smoking mountain 130 million years ago to sharing a landscape with dinosaurs 90 million years ago, tumbling into ocean depths 10 million years ago, and, coming full circle, blasting into the sky in a 1980 volcanic eruption. It’s a long-form reminder that even the most ordinary objects can contain extraordinary histories. Characters are portrayed with various abilities and skin tones. More about rocks concludes. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Emily Mitchell, Wernick & Pratt. Illustrator’s agent: Minju Chang, Bookstop Literary. (July)