(2) K-3 Illustrated by Marc Martin. "A stone is not just a stone," but instead a story, a record of dynamic processes occurring across large stretches of time. Booth's imaginative stories about one stone align with the major rock groups (not named in the main text, though the end pages and a glossary provide explanations) and employ dramatic descriptions of the events the stone experiences. The stone was "gushing from the mouth of a volcano," "crushed and dragged by a glacier," and "driven down / down / down / into deep searing darkness" before it reaches the hand of a child. The impressionistic watercolor illustrations are snapshots of places and times within these processes. Shadows of ancient flora and fauna, including birds, dinosaurs, and sea creatures, are framed by brown and black rock formations that convey solidity and timelessness, even within the dynamic volcanic, oceanic, and surficial landscapes. Readers are encouraged to seek out their own stones, "imagine everything the stone has been...and what it might become," and consider the continuity of change.

Reviewer: Danielle J. Ford | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2023

(1) K-3 Illustrated by Marc Martin. Starlings are social birds, at times flying in groups so large that their wings create a murmuring sound that can be heard by humans on the ground. A honed text and stunning watercolor, pencil, and digital collage illustrations work together to give readers a sense of this phenomenon. "There are hundreds of us! / There are thousands of us! / There are millions of us!" Furrow brings his background as a scientist and Napoli her wide experience writing for children to this collaboration that has both the rhythm of poetry and simple but accurate information: "We find strength and safety in numbers. / We find warmth in numbers." Starlings fill and overflow the pages, swooping in gorgeous waves across the double-page spreads as the birds escape from a hungry falcon or land en masse in a field. The colors of the mixed-media illustrations bleed and blend together. The edges of each bird's wings are indistinct, smudging and overlapping as the mass travels together across the reds, oranges, and pinks of the sky. A striking gatefold gives a sense of the massive scale of a murmuration. An endnote gives readers additional information about starling behavior. Pair with Scanlon and Preston-Gannon's One Dark Bird (rev. 7/19).

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2023