My Book of Rocks and Minerals: Things to Find, Collect, and Treasure Hardcover – July 11, 2017

Props for a wonderful, educational, fun-filled book! This is illustrated beautifully and full of so much information. I bought this for Christmas for my rock-loving 6 year old who is just starting out his collection and comes to me constantly asking me to look up what he has found.I read through it when it came and found myself lost in it! I know he will absolutely love it, and I think it's a great read for all ages. I love that is has a chart of all the rocks and minerals so he can compare what he finds to learn how to identify it. I also love that this book does not explicitly mention "millions of years ago" as so many books of this nature do. Instead, it uses wording like "many years ago" or, "in ancient times." This probably doesn't mean much to most, but being a young Earth creationist, I really appreciate when we find books with more neutral wording that don't push evolution ideologies on my kids. This definitely checks the box for us!

This book is well made, well written and interesting for kids and even adults. Love the colorful pictures and it’s a nice size. Not huge so you hesitate to bring anywhere with you and not tiny so you struggle to read the text or worry about losing it. My son is big into rocks and minerals and fossils etc so after seeing this book a few times when I bought him those dig kits with real gems etc I finally decided to also buy this book and it is well worth the price as most DK books are. Information is accurate and clear. My son brought it with when he went to a state park just so he could identify any rocks or minerals he might have found. Was nicer than taking a pic and trying to identify later.

This was for my 6 year old grandson -For Christmas I got him the Dancing Bear mineral set with geodes to crack open and many other polished rocks- And a great book on minerals-Everything great in the set- only thing the book was a bit too advanced for a 6 year old-I read through it and probably more like high school on level-So recently found this other book on minerals-the one I am reviewing on here now-It seemed more for younger kids and I ordered for grandson-the good reviews on it were exactly correct-Well, he loves it!!And would highly recommend-my daughter-in-law would also-Perfect!

Big beautiful pics for my 6yo to enjoy & learn quite a bit about many different rocks & gems!

Great book full of facts and high quality pictures. I especially liked how they had geometric shapes to help explain different types of crystals! One of the best I’ve seen regarding crystals. I also loved the summary in the back with very high quality identification pictures for all the rocks in the book as a quick reference guide - super useful to budding geologists trying to classify their rock collections! I’ve been looking for something like this for a while so that was big win in my book.But… I took a star off because in some places I’d expect better editing/writing. I think this book needs a better edit, then it would be amazing (maybe second edition?). For example, language really should be tweaked for kids. I think a scientist wrote this - who at least is very knowledgeable- but instead of “thousands of specimens” maybe say “thousands of samples” - if you wanted to introduce vocab, great! But then define that word for the kids - there was ample space to do that. In fact, they included a glossary but didn’t include those more unfamiliar words but did include “rock”…that kind of thing can turn kids off…which is a lost opportunity to inspire and engage children (which should be the goal with these kinds of books).Editing issues I did not like: the picture of the Crystal Caves in Mexico - it wasn’t labeled, making the fact bubble confusing - it wasn’t clear it was talking about a specific cave. As an adult trying to understand this I had to read the prior page to figure out what they were trying to explain. Kids jump around, they should have done a simple picture label so as not to confuse kiddos.That isn’t the only case of editing that wasn’t on the mark. Like if you want to explain the concept of a carat, great! But make it relatable to a kid - even to an adult their explanation essentially gave you no understanding. All they had to do was state a carat is very small at 200 milligrams, equivalent to the weight of a paperclip - even better, they had pictures all over the page - make one to true scale for a carat!! Duh…As this is Penguin, not some self-published work, I thought they could have done a better job in many little ways to make this more relatable and understandable for children.All in all, solid book with good detail, fun facts and great photographs to help kids identify rocks, gems, and crystals. But publishers should take a moment to increase quality and read it once to kids and get feedback before putting it out there - they just cut corners on this - this reads too much like adult language simplified than truly written in the language of - and for - a child. Unfortunate miss for me in that way. I will keep but this isn’t a recommend.

Grandkids loved this book

For young enthusiasts eager to step into the fascinating world of geology, this book is an excellent introduction. This guide serves as a perfect starting point for children and beginners who have a budding interest in collecting and learning about rocks and minerals.What sets this book apart is its interactive approach. It encourages kids to go out and apply what they've learned by finding, collecting, and treasuring their own specimens.

My six and a half years old girl is obsessed with this book. It is beautifully laid out. She is bringing this book everywhere. Even to our road trip.