Backpack Explorer: Rock Hunt is a Children's Nonfiction about nature and outdoors, specifically looking and learning about rocks.

The cover is simple and goes alongside their other books within the series. We have seen a few others of theirs to incorporate within our outdoor studies with our toddler.

Within the pages, you're introduced to rocks, what you need to pack when you go "rock hunting", learn about minerals, and more.

Their illustrations are great, colorful and bright but also easily understandable for kids and little ones while still being realistic and detailed. We've enjoyed their previous books within this series and it's a great tool for homeschooling, teaching and more.

5 Stars. Would recommend. This book will definitely become a part of our collection for learning at home.

Thanks to the publisher, Storey Publishing, the author, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC copy to read and review. Review will also be posted to my blog (www.kagoodsell.com/book-reviews), GoodReads, TikTok (@unearthingeco), as well as NetGalley reviews.

This book is a great addition to the series! I love the emphasis on rocks, especially collecting and identification. There are lots of colorful pictures throughout and fun activities that would appeal to children of various age groups.

This is a great rock book for young children. It goes into lots of details about the rock cycle, types of rocks, etc. with some fun activities like building cairns and making a rock pet. Color stock photos show lots of kinds of rocks and children playing with rocks. It also names many kinds of rocks like common white, black, shiny and spotted rocks.

(I read a temporary digital ARC of this book via Net Galley.)

Being a rock painter I just had to read this story about rock hunting! This is a cute book for little kids to give them ideas of what to look for while hunting for rocks. It also explains some scientific principles. I like that it is encouraging curiosity and being outdoors. I liked all of the scavenger hunts for the different types of rocks. This was a colorful book and little kids would really enjoy the scavenger hunt aspect of it especially with the stickers to add when the rocks are found. Fun read!

Thanks to NetGalley and Storey Publishing for access to this Digital ARC.

I LOVE this book! As a grade 3 teacher about to teach a unit on Rocks and Minerals with my class, I'm devastated that this book doesn't come out until February! That's ok, I'll still definitely need to purchase a copy for my class library in the new year! This book is filled with fun and interesting activities that children can do to learn more about different rocks and minerals. There is a mix of real and drawn pictures that are intriguing and will draw in a young readers attention I think this book would be a perfect fit for any little aspiring geologists in the age 4-10 range. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book!

I loved this book. My background is in nature based education and I would absolutely recommend this book to nature based educators of young children or to families. It has a great mix of scientific information, activity suggestions and beautiful illustrations. I think a child would feel like they had a treasure map in their hands reading this book. This book would be a great tool for parents who value connecting their children to the outdoors but don’t always know how to do that.

We own all the Backyard Explorer books published so far. This one definitely didn’t disappoint. It has such great illustrations/photos, as well as just enough information to get kids interested in learning more about rocks without overwhelming them. They’re made to take out on the trail and explore.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to receive an arc in exchange for my honest review- all thoughts and opinions are my own!


Loved this cute book. Illustrations/photos are perfect, the amount of info given is great and won’t overwhelm kiddos. I’m a homeschool mama and I’m planning on a rock/crystal/mineral unit next year for science and this will go along perfectly for my kids (2nd and 4th grade).

Backpack Explorer: Rock Hunt is a great resource for doing rock-related activities! There are lots of facts about rocks, minerals, and other items outside. I really enjoyed the variety of activities, from organizing your own rock collection, to figuring out what type of rock you have. Very fun, great way to get kids outdoors and interested in nature.