A stone sat still

by Brendan Wenzel

Hardcover, 2019

Status

Available

Collection

Picture books

Publication

San Francisco, California : Chronicle Books LLC, [2019]

Description

Told in rhyming verse, a stone is considered from a variety of environmental and emotional perspectives, as it sits where it is, surrounded by grass, dirt, and water, an unchanging certainty in the world.

User reviews

LibraryThing member AbigailAdams26

Described on the dust-jacket flap as a companion to author/illustrator Brendan Wenzel's Caldecott Honor-winning They All Saw a Cat, this new picture-book also explores perspective. Centering around the eponymous stone, the narrative here explores the stone's existence - the many uses it serves to

various creatures in the wild, and the various positions it holds, depending upon the size and outlook of the being examining it. In the end, the stone sits and endures, while everything around it changes...

The third picture-book that Wenzel has both written and illustrated, and the eighth he has worked on overall, A Stone Sat Still pairs a simple but thought-provoking text that emphasizes the stone's many roles in the world it inhabits with gorgeous multi-media artwork. I don't know that this one struck me quite as strongly as They All Saw a Cat, but there was something about it - perhaps a feeling of quietude, similar to what one feels when sitting still, out in the natural world? - that makes it very appealing. Recommended to fellow fans of Brendan Wenzel, and to anyone looking for lovely new picture-books about perspective and/or nature.

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LibraryThing member Lisa2013

This title greatly appealed to me and I was expecting a meditative experience and it did sort of provide it for me. I do like how it shows perspective via how all sorts of creatures view and use the same stone in different ways. The stone remains stable, a constant, in an always changing and

diverse world. I appreciated the concept. And the illustrations and gorgeous and huge and striking.

I think I enjoyed the author/illustrator’s They All Saw A Cat book more than this one. It’s very similar in what it presents. I didn’t really like the interactive line near the end “Have you ever known such a place?” though some children/other readers might appreciate it. I did like most of the rest of the spare text.

3-1/2 stars

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LibraryThing member melodyreads

Calm, lyrical tale of a stone, and all the life on and around it.

LibraryThing member Salsabrarian

A large stone sits, unchanging, unwavering, as life and time passes and creatures live among it. The soothing lines and cadence invoke consistency, reliability, constancy, unwavering resilience, reassurance that no matter what else is going on, the stone is there, being and serving as creatures

need it to be. (You can think of a parent or friend or favorite place as being your stone.)

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LibraryThing member villemezbrown

The trick of playing with perspective and perception that enlivened They All Saw a Cat just lies there in this book doing as little as the title rock.

LibraryThing member The_Hibernator

This is a great book to show how the world can be explored from all angles and perspectives. It’s a simple story, but full of depth.

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