Since we are talking geology this week here at TMG, I thought that I would share a book with you that I think is brilliant and imaginative and so very, very well done: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by the incomparable William Steig. Not only is Sylvester and the Magic Pebble a wonderful read, it is also a book about a rock that is so much more than just a rock, and I think that makes it a perfect book for thinking about kids and geology! Okay, maybe it's a bit of stretch, but bear with me because this is a great book.
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble is the story of a young donkey, Sylvester, who due to an unfortunate mishap involving a hungry lion and a pebble with magical properties, finds himself turned into a large, donkey-colored rock. The majority of the book details the search for Sylvester by his understandably worried parents, Sylvester's attempts at resigning himself to life as a rock, and yes, his eventual return to life as a donkey. It is a little funny, a bit poignant and full of the unexpected.
The illustrations and the writing in Sylvester and the Magic Pebble are both examples of Steig at his best, and anyone who is a fan of his other work is sure to love this book. Like much of Steig's other writing, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble dives deeps into the realm of the impossible, but not without bringing along themes that are just as well placed in a book with more realistic characters and situations. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble is a book about patience, about faith and about hope.
And, of course, a little bit about geology.
