Rock

Written by Laurel Croza

Illustrated by Matt James

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-948-7

44 pp.

Ages 3-6

March 2025 

 

There is a rock on a beach. Spotting it, a seagull swoops down to claim it, hoping for a morsel of food. The gull is disappointed when he tries to snatch it and so begins a dialogue about the nature of the rock. In stark text with sweeping illustrations, Laurel Croza and Matt James, the collaboration who brought us the award-winning I Know Here and From There to Here, initiate a simple but profound examination of the concept of self.

 

From Rock, written by Laurel Croza, illustrated by Matt James

 

The gull, chagrined that the rock is not what he expected, asks, "What do you think you are?" The only response he receives is, "I am a rock." To every query and claim, suggestion and threat that the gull makes, the rock stays true to itself and repeats, "I am a rock."

From Rock, written by Laurel Croza, illustrated by Matt James

First the gull discounts the rock's claim and suggests it's more like a pebble or a stone. But then the seagull asserts that it really doesn't matter what it calls itself, it is vulnerable and trivial. The rock is threatened with being dropped in the water, and then eroding away to insignificance, or becoming just one of the multitudes of negligible rocks on the beach. 

I am telling you,

you are nothing

special.

Still the rock just says, "I am a rock."

From Rock, written by Laurel Croza, illustrated by Matt James

 

Throughout the exchange, a child has been on the beach playing. A final illustration suggests that the rock is a rock and one that is special in its own way. 

 

Laurel Croza may let the seagull do most of the talking in Rock but it is the rock's few words that are the most impactful. Just as in life, there are those who taunt and threaten, bully and ridicule and do so with bravado and nastiness. The gull thinks it's more powerful and significant, but it has no substance. It's all talk and bluster. Is it threatened by the quiet strength of the rock that will not cower or renounce its identity? Who knows. But what Laurel Croza makes clear is that self-confidence is not the same as exaggerated self-opinion. It can be a quiet acceptance of self and identity, knowing who you are, regardless of what others tell you or suggest to you. The rock has a foundation of strength that comes from the certainty of its identity.

 

While Laurel Croza's words are few–there are whole double-spreads without text–Matt James's artwork speaks volumes. Done in acrylic and ink on acetate, wood, masonite and cardboard, Matt James fills in the story. From the gull eyeing the rock and then the pain when he tries to grab it, to the gull's bravado while surrounded by other gulls, Matt James shows how the loud and obnoxious get all the attention, even when being nasty, while the stoic rock remains cool and resolute. On that expansive beach that stretches along a huge body of water and under an ever-changing sky, it is only the shadow of the rock that changes.

 

Rock is a powerful story of self-awareness and -confidence. It's about staying true to your identity regardless of those who question it or object to it. It's about being a rock when others want you to be wobbly jelly or melting ice cream, both of which I'm sure the gull would've preferred.

 

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The official launch of Rock is taking place in Toronto on March 9th. Details are found below. 

Join author and illustrator

 

Laurel Croza and Matt James

 

for the launch of their newest picture book

 

Rock

 

on Sunday, March 9, 2025

 

at

 

1-3 PM

 

at

 

Queen Books

914 Queen St. East

Toronto, ON

416-788-5053

https://shop.queenbooks.ca/events

 

The book launch will include a story time reading and book signing.

 

🪨🪨🪨🪨🪨

The Whirlpool

Written by Laurel Croza

Illustrated by Kelsey Garrity-Riley

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-032-3

96 pp.

Ages 10-14

May 2018

Don't be deceived by the simple cover illustration and the less-than-100 page count. The Whirlpool, a collection of seven short stories from award-winning picture book author Laurel Croza, is not an early reader.  Its stories are sophisticated and aimed at upper middle grades, covering a wide variety of issues from emotional abuse and grief to destiny and bullying.

In It's a Step, the narrator Charity lives with her mother and abusive father.  As her dad rails against her mom taking a job at Tim's, both mother and daughter find the means to take a small step to a better life.  In Book of Dreams, Mike finds the support he doesn't get at home from his mom and her latest boyfriend at a restaurant where he gets respect, appreciation and a turkey dinner. While a very different story in terms of characters, OH! is also about finding home. The Oh! So Perfect Hair Dolly goes from factory to store shelf and dreams of being named by a child. The desolation of being passed over during Christmas shopping and then being relegated to the reduced price bin is reflective of any child who has felt unloved.  

The Whirlpool is the story of fifteen-year-old Jasmine who is the brunt of swirling rumours at the whirlpool that is school about her having a baby. As she deals with the gossip and nastiness, Jasmine resolves to "look the whirlpool in the eye" (pg. 30) and reveal her story. A Beautiful Smile also looks at nastiness at school, this time with a young teen from the north standing up to a mean girl at her new Toronto school. Most satisfying is the public and clever way in which Nicola finds support and salvation.

Although all the stories have something important to impart, my two favourite stories are The Sunflower and Destiny. Though told from the perspective of a squirrel, The Sunflower is neither trite nor silly. It is an emotional story about loss and grief and making connections, and I defy anyone not to sob at its telling.  Destiny is a revealing story about following one's dreams, regardless of others' desires and opinions.  Johnny helped inspire his younger sister Dani to play hockey even when her father thought figure skating would be more appropriate. Dani persevered and changed her father's mind about her playing hockey. Now, with Johnny drafted to the OHL, she wants to help her brother accept his true destiny too.

Each story in Laurel Croza's collection is packed with emotional growth, from taking first steps to fulfilling one's destiny, or saving yourself, or accepting strengths and weaknesses as part of the whole package. The stories may be brief (each less than 20 pages) but they wallop you with the power of their storytelling, dialogue and message. My favourite, The Sunflower, does that all in five pages.

I shouldn't be surprised that Laurel Croza can weave such powerful tales. Her highly-acclaimed picture books, I Know Here and From There to Here, which were beautifully illustrated by Matt James, conveyed amazing stories in few words. But these stories are not picture book tales transformed into text. They are not for our youngest readers, though, because of the length of the books, parents and teachers might expect them to be so.  The stories in The Whirlpool collection deal with issues of abuse, gossip, abandonment, and death. While these are issues with which younger readers may be familiar, the older protagonists in Laurel Croza's stories suggest that older middle grade readers might understand the messages better.

I've always loved short story collections for the breadth of stories that can be told and the piecemeal manner in which the text can be read. They are potent teaching tools and convenient for reading in shorter time periods. With The Whirlpool, Laurel Croza has provided a worthwhile addition to the youngCanLit collection of short story anthologies as it enlightens, reassures and inspires.

From There to Here

by Laurel Croza

Illustrated by Matt James

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-365-0

32 pp.

Ages 4-7

For release May 2014

The little girl in I Know Here (Groundwood, 2010), Laurel Croza and Matt James' first book together and the 2011 winner of the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award, recollects all the wonderful attributes of her home in northeastern Saskatchewan.  After father's work on a dam there is complete, the family would be moving to Toronto, and the young girl was anticipating that move and what she would miss of her home.  Now the little girl and her family have arrived in Toronto and, in poetic observations, she compares their life "there" to their new life "here", in From There to Here.

Of course, it is so easy for the young girl to still see all the positives of her former home and how different everything is in Toronto.  From her father's job, to the type of roads, the buildings, time with family, the vegetation, the sky–everything is different.  

"It's different here, not the same as there."  

Laurel Croza's clean text emphasizes the simple thought processes of the girl as she navigates her mindset from the country to her new urban setting.  It's succinct but progressive.  And illustrator Matt James, who won the 2013 Governor General's Award for Children's Illustration, emphasizes with elegance the differences between the "there" and the "here", never making one look better than the other, just different but similar.  Matt James juxtaposes the colours and lines of trees with bed-frames and windows blinds, or the northern lights and the street lamps, with such refinement. As in any great picture book, the text should be complemented by the illustrations, as Laurel Croza and Matt James have done so easily in From There to Here.   They found the means to endow memories and new experiences with the quality of perspective, effortlessly taking the reader on a smooth journey From There to Here.