My Kids Loved this book! It was a really great book for my oldest to read and he found it very interesting!! Thanks!!

Backpack Explorer: Rock Hunt
4 Stars

This book introduces rock hunting and geology for elementary age children. The activities and picture book are interactive. It encourages children to go outside, and start an adventure by exploring outside: to find, collect, and learn about rocks. I appreciated the crafts suggestions with directions. The illustrations are bright and colorful and should hold your child's interest and convey a real sense of excitement.

I 'd recommend this book for children that are interested in stones, rocks or gems. I love that this book uses multisensory learning, and it is getting the children up and out of the house to explore. This book's pace is similar to a school textbook but it's broken down into bite-sized digestible pieces.

Thank you, NetGalley and Storey Publishing, for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A wonderful illustrated guide about rock hunting and learning about rocks. It includes a variety of facts, illustrations, and photographs. This would be perfect for explorers ages 6 to 9. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC. All thoughts are my own.

I love this guide. My daughter really enjoyed looking through it with me too. She likes to collect rocks and liked learning more facts about them.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC!

My daughter was enamored with this book! The colorful pictures and infographics drew her in, the information hit the right balance of thorough and digestible, and she was engaged with the questions and activities throughout the book.

As a parent, I appreciate an intro to geology book that can be understood by and encourage curiosity in a preschooler, though I think any elementary age kid could get something out of this.

This book is interactive and fun, inspiring kids to connect with and explore nature. We will be enjoying many rock hunts with this cheerful book. I think it would make a great gift.

Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review!

Rock Hunt has several fun activities and gorgeous photographs of different types of rocks such as pebbles, boulders, gemstones. Some activities include stickers for some pages, games, scavenger hunts.
Reflecting back to when I took geology in college, I was glad to see the Moh Scale of hardness. Descriptions are shown of types of white rocks, black and grey ones too..
The pages seemed jumbled, no system of what comes next, and the book ended abruptly.
This will be a good book for a child’s personal library, but not for a school library because of the stickers.

This book is really good for children who are interested in rocks, either by just looking around beaches etc or collecting gemstones. It is American so the first couple of pages I wasn't sure for UK audience but actually it is definitely one on my wishlistGreat geology explanations of how the different rocks arr formed, informative but easy to follow and also lovely geographical diagrams of land formations and landscapes.
I like the way it had fun suggestions of what to look for or activities to do too.

This was such a fun book to go through with my son. It was also very handy being able to read it on my phone as well as iPad because we went exploring in the bush looking for rocks that may have matched the descriptions of ones in the book. It's also been raining a lot so we had fun racing barky boats down the ditch together, though we didn't have much luck keeping any stones on them. My son now wants to visit all the different beaches he can to check what colour sand they have and what they feel like, not something we can do in the middle of winter but it will be a fun summer activity. The book was colourful, informative and really held my sons attention, he is keen to try every activity in the book over the school holidays that we haven't already done, and go on many more adventures. A fun activity and informational book for the whole family to read together.

Thank you Net Galley and Storey Publishing for an ARC of Backpack Explorer: Rock Hunt. What a delightful book that focuses on rocks, stones, and pebbles you find in and on the ground. This book would be great for younger readers with an adult assisting and an older elementary student to read and explore on their own. There are the typical pages to inform about the types of rocks and minerals, landforms, and fossils you may find on a walk, but there are numerous portions of the book that are special. On many pages, there were questions or directions for the reader to think about and explore with the rock they found. such as "Can you find some heart-shaped stones?" and "Look for rocks the color of sand." There are several scavenger hunts for the reader to enjoy as well as pages to explore rocks you may just miss such as "Black and Gray Rocks" , "Striped and Speckled Rocks", and "Sparkly Rocks". The book encourages the reader to explore and get dirty by looking for unique and special rocks such as ones with an "x" on it or unique patterns. As many children love to pick up and collect rocks, this book provides some guidance and explanations to refine their collections and scientific exploration.

As a home educator, I am always looking for good books that are both interactive and informative for my children. This book is definitely both of those things. It is filled with excellent illustrations, photos, diagrams and nuggets of information and text that provide a fantastic opportunity for self-readers to engage independently. It would be a fantastic spine to use for a Rocks and Minerals unit for a homeschool or traditional classroom. It would also make a fantastic gift for a curious child or someone who enjoys exploring! As I read through it, my eight year old wanted to read it right along with me. He scoured each page for fun facts. I highly recommend!

Review to come February 14th 2023 on blog/goodreads.

I received this book from Netgalley/the publisher in exchange of an honest review.

I just love reading about rocks and I also used to collect them when I was younger. These days I don't, but I still love seeing pretty rocks! I knew that it may not be the easiest to find rocks here in my country, really, we don't have like oodles of nature just next to us, and I am sure there are certain rules to nature parks where you may find things. Also no mountains or big things to climb. So I was mostly just reading this book for funsies, seeing what DIY projects there were, read up on some stones. Sometimes I wish I lived in a country with more exciting nature. XD

In this book we learn about various fun things! From how rocks are created, to where to find the best stones to skip rivers with (a skill I never mastered, haha) to different kinds of sands (so jelly of those seeing black sand), and tons more! There is so much information packed in this short book and it is beautiful. I am always impressed when people can cram tons of information in a small book. I had fun flipping the pages and seeing what was next. I think my favourite chapter was the one about the minerals, I am sorry, I love shiny stuff. I had a few of these minerals (from stores) in my home when I was a kid. Loved holding them to the light of the sun. Plus, I learned some new things as well. I thought I knew most about rocks and stuff, but it seems there are some new bits of information to stuff into my head. Yas! Love that.

I really loved the DIY projects in this one, and would have liked to see even more. From making a box (from egg boxes) for your collection of stones to making adorable pet rocks.

I am so jelly of those in the US, who can just go out on a roadtrip and find minerals, stones, and more. See gorgeous rock formations or canyons. Climb mountains. I guess if I wanted to have a shot I would have to do tons of research to see what I may find, and otherwise travel to Germany or France.

I loved all the photographs and illustrations that were all over the book. It really made the book a ton of fun to read and I just love the combo of both illustrations and photography to show rocks and other fun things.

All in all, maybe not the best book for a Dutchie, but I still had fun reading and dreaming about visiting the US (though that will be a dream forever). I learned some new things. I think this book would be perfect for those in the US or those with tons of places to find rocks + more.

This book is a delightful introduction to rock hunting and geology for little people.

The illustrations and pictures are bright and inviting and convey a real sense of excitement and adventure.

The instructions, activities, and information is perfect for young children and is bound to start a life-long interest in being a 'rock hound'.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the editors for giving me a free digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Links to Booktopia and Amazon AU reviews will be updated the week of publication.

Thank you to Net Galley and Storey Publishing for this opportunity to read this E-Ark and this is my honest review.

5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My son got one of those kits from national graphic where they have to dig out the rocks. He loved it. Since then we have been everything rocks in this house and got a tumbler.

This book was a great introduction for kids who like and want to know more about rocks. I loved how it went thru three different types with detailed pictures. But then within those types the author then provided fun ideas for activities that the kids could do. Like stacking rocks, making a bark boat and seeing how many rocks it could hold etc. I also loved the idea of using an egg carton to hold all your small rock treasures.

This is great and I can't wait for it to come out to pickup up physical copy.

I love this book! I've loved rocks since I was a kid, always going to rock shows and using rock tumblers, and when my son got interested in them, I was incredibly psyched. I was very excited to have this book to explore with him!

I really enjoyed this book there's tons of fun facts and the little scavenger hunts will be fun for kids (or adults) to do. It's a good resource for lots of information on rocks from how they form to the different types great for the little rock hunter you know

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

Backpack Explorer: Rock Hunt is a great resourceful book for children all about rocks. This book uses photographs and illustrations throughout and gives so much information on different rock types, where to find them, rock cycles and more. There are some great little experiments and fun ideas of things to make or do with rocks and stickers at the back to add to the book when the child has found certain rocks. This would make a really fun book to take out and about in nature, the the beach, hiking etc and would definitely help with school projects!

This book provides young readers/learners with interesting facts about various types of rocks and minerals. It provides plenty of pictures to compare your findings to the book to identify your rock. Would be perfect for a classroom, home schooling, or any rock obsessed child.

This book is perfect for all aspiring young geologists, or for introducing children to the different types of rocks they may encounter whilst in nature. The illustrations and pictures used within the book will allow younger children to engage with the book, and the vocabulary used will help them to establish a solid foundation of knowledge upon which they may build scientific and geographical knowledge further. I particularly enjoyed within this book, that alongside the written explanations and pronunciation guides the scavenger hunts and activities which will allow children to experience hands-on activities to engage them with the learning opportunities provided within the book. 5/5 - perfect for first time geologists or for compounding prior knowledge!

I really enjoy collecting cool and interesting looking rocks when my husband and I go on walks and hikes, so this book seemed like a fun read, and it didn't disappoint. If you have a young one that loves the outdoors and/or rocks, this could be a great addition to your library. That being said though, this book does require some adult supervision for a number of the activities and some of the tips and facts might want to be elaborated on for safety reasons. (For example: 'certain rocks can scratch glass', please make sure your readers do not try to scratch all your windows with rocks).

So what is this book, well, it is a lot of great things. First and foremost it is a non-fiction book all about types of rocks, where you might find them, their differences, and often interesting facts about them. It is also a sticker book of sorts, as you locate the types of rocks, the book boasts stickers in the back that you can use to track your progress (since I had a digital copy, I did not have the pleasure of stickering, nor where there examples of the sticker pages). It is also an activity book. In between the sections about rocks, there are fun things to do and try with them, pet rocks, scavenger hunts, boats with rock pirates, and collections

This book was very well put together with thing to bring on your hunt, images of actual rocks, illustrations, and diagrams. It is easy to follow along with and has some pronunciation guides in the text to help out.

It is important to also remind your readers that not all rocks are found in all areas, it is possible that they will be able to complete their sticker journey, but maybe not. Overall, I found this book pretty fun to read through and I think young rock hounds will enjoy it as well. But be prepared to find rocks all over your house.

Galley note: I received this early e-copy from the publisher, and at the time of reading there were many images with watermarks on them from stock images. Completely fine and the images were great, I just hope that for publication the watermarks are removed accordingly.

Review will go live on blog closer to release date.

Backpack Explorer: Rock Hunt is a fun book to help kids identify simple rocks by their physical features. As a former science teacher, I like the simplicity of it and think my nieces and nephews who love rocks would really enjoy following along with this book to learn more. I like that there are pronunciation guides for some of the more technical terms.

A couple questions: I know this is an ARC, but the photos with watermarks will be replaced, correct? Is a reason the sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks are broken up with fossils? Normally when teaching the rock cycle we begin with igneous then transition to sedimentary and metamorphic through the processes that make them up since igneous comes from volcanic rocks cooling and hardening.

Overall, a great book. A little too old for my secondary students, but would love to share it with my younger nieces and nephews.

Thanks Netgalley and Storey Publishing, LLC for the ARC. I look forward to seeing other books released in their series.