A POCKET FULL OF ROCKS

Throughout the year, a youngster explores all the things one can do with a pocketful of nature.

Anyone who washes a child’s clothes learns an important lesson—check the pockets first. But where an adult might find a jumble of rocks and other detritus, a child sees a world of comfort and possibility. Told in the second person with a repeating structure, the story follows a little one who gathers up treasures from nature and puts them to imaginative use. In the winter, a pocketful of rocks becomes “chairs for fairies to rest on.” Spring flower petals are transformed into perfume. Summer brings shells that sound like the ocean, and fall acorns make “perfect hats for the fairies now that the weather is getting cool.” At the end of each season, the child transfers the treasures into a jar to make room for the next discoveries. When the year ends, the young protagonist gifts them to the rest of the family. With an empty jar and a pocketful of rocks, the cycle starts again. A sour note in an otherwise sweet story is the dismissiveness of the protagonist’s family. With each new pocketful, Mom, Dad, and the child’s sister look up from their own activities to discourage the young narrator; petals will wilt, and collecting shells brings in sand. Still, the solitary child finds a way to make space for creativity. Soft, colorful illustrations provide quiet beauty. Characters are brown-skinned.

A meditative homage to the creative universe inside a child’s mind—and pockets.