The rock from the sky by Jon Klassen

cover image

The Rock from the Sky is a charming picture book with quite subtle humour divided into 5 stories.  They feature a turtle, an armadillo/mole creature, a snake and an alien and explore friendships, emotions, the future and stepping outside your comfort zone.

In the first story the turtle sits in a favourite spot and invites the Armadillo to join him.  The Armadillo feels uncomfortable in that spot and finds his own a little further away, where the snake joins him.  A little jealous, the turtle tries to get them to come over to his spot without success. All the while the readers see a rock on its way down from the sky, but don’t know where it is going to land.  When it does land one of the characters is glad that he followed his instincts.

Each story stands alone so the book would be perfect to read in sections at bedtime or to a young class over a week at school.  It also lends itself for readers to try different voices for the characters as the text is written in different tones to show which character is speaking.  The illustrations are very muted tones in black, browns, greys and a smattering of red/orange.  The characters eyes cleverly convey their emotions when things happen in the story. The animals all wear a hat (of course) as this is Klasson’s first book since his acclaimed Hat trilogy - I want my hat back, This is not my Hat and We found a hat, which will tie this book to that series for young readers.

Themes: Turtles, Armadillos, Friendship, Emotions, Imagination, Future, Aliens.

Gabrielle Anderson

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