The Rock from the Sky

Written and illustrated by Jon Klassen

Candlewick Press

978-1-5362-1563-2

96 pp.

Ages 4-8

April 2021

 

With his characteristic grim humour and understated but commanding illustrations, Jon Klassen returns with a new extended picture book (96 pages) to take on a story of fate, pride and connection. It is both of our world and not.

 

From The Rock from the Sky by Jon Klassen

In a series of five separate stories, each numbered and titled, Jon Klassen chronicles the interactions between a turtle, an armadillo, a snake and a rock. In the first, The Rock, the hat-wearing turtle–Jon Klassen does like his hats– has positioned himself at his favourite spot beside a rose-coloured flower. Though the reader can see, in the next double-spread, a massive rock suspended in the air, Turtle is oblivious. When Armadillo, in his own bowler, comes along and gets a bad feeling, he checks out a spot farther away beside a leafy stem where the beret-wearing Snake joins him. As Turtle shouts at them that his spot is better, approaching them to be heard, the massive rock drops onto Turtle's favourite spot.

From The Rock from the Sky by Jon Klassen

In The Fall, Turtle has climbed up upon the rock and fallen off onto his back. As can happen to any turtle, he is stuck, but he refuses to acknowledge to a concerned Armadillo that he had been climbing or that he had fallen. Moreover, he refuses the very help he requires.

I never need help.
OK.

What are you doing?

I came to take a nap.

It is nice under here.

You can take a nap

too, if you want.

There is just enough 

room for two.

No. I am not tired.
OK.

As such, the two acquaintances remain in place, with Turtle wide awake and stuck on his back, and still stubbornly refusing help, while Armadillo naps.

 

The third story, The Future, has contemplative Armadillo thinking about the future and what might grow and become of the area around the rock. But his imagination reveals a one-eyed, multi-legged creature as tall as the rock, sending out laser waves and blasting a flower into a charred mess before Turtle decries that...

I don't want to imagine into the 

future with you anymore.

Ever pensive, Armadillo ponders the beauty of the setting sun when Turtle approaches him and Snake in The Sunset. Shouting from far away, Turtle demands to know what they're doing. Of course, he cannot hear their responses so he just comes closer and closer until he misses the sunset completely, never stopping to notice it.

From The Rock from the Sky by Jon Klassen

Feeling disregarded by the sleeping Armadillo and Snake in No More Room, the final chapter in The Rock from the Sky, Turtle leaves, affronted by their apparent rejection. Turtle suggests that perhaps he will go away and never come back, shouting at them to ensure they hear him. Thinking they still cannot hear him, he approaches while repeating his message. However, Armadillo and Snake are quite awake now, seeing the strange creature behind the oblivious Turtle. Once again, Turtle has no idea what a close call he's going to have.

From The Rock from the Sky by Jon Klassen

Though there is much simplicity in the dialogue between Turtle and Armadillo–Snake does not speak–Jon Klassen uses subtle distinctions to embed more meaning in the story of the three acquaintances, perhaps even friends, who are as different in attitude and intention as a turtle, an armadillo and a snake might be. Through font colour and capitalization, Jon Klassen differentiates between his characters and the nature of their voices. He portrays Turtle as a proud and even tedious character who sees little beyond himself, never wanting to look anything but capable. Armadillo, on the other hand, is imaginative and attentive, both insightful and considerate while never arrogant. And Snake? He just is, taking things at face-value. Armadillo is the quiet leader, Snake the congenial follower, and Turtle the naive but self-important simpleton. Their fates and their connection with each other are what give The Rock from the Sky their stories.

Of course, Jon Klassen's distinction is in his artwork, having won the Governor General's Award for Children's Illustration, as well as the prestigious Caldecott and Kate Greenaway Medals. The Rock from the Sky is no less distinguished than his earlier award-winning books, especially those whose stories he penned like This is Not My Hat. The art, created digitally with watercolours, is authoritative. It is both organic, in line and shape and most definitely colour, but also otherworldly, importing the surreal or perhaps alien, to help us see better how things truly are.

I know many people think picture books are only for children but The Rock from the Sky is so sophisticated in its art and wry storytelling that I encourage it be read by all. It has a wicked tongue-in-cheek story about seeing what is in front of you, or above you, and ahead of you, and about listening to make sure you don't miss the obvious. I hope I was able to see and hear adequately to experience the true nature of Jon Klassen's extraordinary tale.

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I'm so excited to announce that tomorrow I'll be posting an interview I had with author and illustrator Jon Klassen about The Rock from the Sky. It was a thrill to get his perspective on his inspirations for The Rock from the Sky and to learn more about the process by which he created his new book. Do check back tomorrow for this special posting.

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#CanLit Choices: "Holes" alternatives

Holes

by Louis Sachar

Yearling

978-0440414803

272 pp.

Ages 9-12

RL 5.2

1999

Holes, the multiple award-winning book by American author, Louis Sachar, is the story of Stanley Yelnats who is sent to a juvenile correctional camp in the Texas desert where he finds him digging holes.  Of course, he is not surprised by this turn of events as his family has been cursed ever since his "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather" failed to keep a promise.

Written at RL 5.2 (this means a child should be able to read this at the second month of Grade 5), Holes is often used to demonstrate the following themes:

• fate
• friendship
• justice
• determination

Of course, Louis Sachar's sense of humour and surprise twists are also very engrossing.

                                                                                            

The following youngCanLit books focus on fate and justice and would serve well as updated and alternative novels to Louis Sachar's Holes. And, for those fans of Holes who might like a Canadian alternative, these novels have the twists, turns and laughs that have made Holes such a popular book.

Banjo of Destiny

by Cary Fagan 

Illustrated by Selçuk Demirel 

Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press

127 pp.

Ages 9-12

2011

Courtesy of his parents' dental floss fortune, Jeremiah Birnbaum has the very best of everything that money can buy, including the lessons and education to turn him into a fine young man.  But Jeremiah falls in love with the music of the banjo, and that does not fit in with his parents' plan.

Book Club Questions for Banjo of Destiny

Jolted: Newton Starker's Rules for Survival

by Arthur Slade

HarperCollins

224 pp.

Ages 11-14

2008

Newton Starker has just lost his mother to a lightning strike, the same tragedy that has cursed all his relatives on his mother's side. Armed with his six rules for survival, his trusty truffle-seeking pig, a desire to out-manoeuvre his nemesis Violet Quan, and the will to live, fourteen-year-old Newton, a student at the Jerry Potts Academy of Higher Learning and Survival in Moose Jaw, wonders whether he'll be the one to outlive the curse.

Podcast: Audio and Video of Arthur Slade's reading of Jolted 

The Midnight Curse

by L.M. Falcone

Kids Can Press

208 pp.

Ages 10-13

2010

When their great-great-uncle Jonathan dies, eleven-year-old fraternal twins, Charlie and Lacey Darcy, and their mom are summoned to England, hopeful for an inheritance.  But, it is a curse that transfers from Uncle Jonathan to Charlie, already a nervous worrier, which condemns him to a life sleeping in water from midnight to daybreak, or suffer death.

Book trailer can be viewed at my CanLit for LittleCanadians Book Trailers site here.

Neil Flambé and the Crusader's Curse

by Kevin Sylvester

Simon & Schuster Books for Young People

291 pp.

Ages 8-14

2012

Neil Flambé, teen chef and Vancouver restauranteer extraordinaire, does not that know that the great Flambé chefs have been cursed since the 1200's.  He does know, however, that his dishes now taste like sawdust, the re-opening of the restaurant is doomed (especially after closed by the health inspector) and he's challenged by computer wiz and rival, Stanley Picón, with computer Deep Blue Cheese (DBC), to a cooking duel.  It's a very unsavory situation for Neil.

Activity sheets and a How To Draw Neil Flambé video are available at the Simon & Schuster website

Dunces Anonymous

by Kate Jaimet

Orca Book Publishers
157 pp.
Ages 9-12
2009

Josh is sure to win Class President, but it's his mother that wants it for me, not Josh. To find some help with his dilemma, Josh forms a club, Dunces Anonymous, for students whose parents push them to excel at activities they are not interested in. Two students join him:  Wang, whose father is chess tournament crazy, loves fencing, and Magnolia, who likes to act, does not want to be in the school play, Romeo and Juliet.

In each of the above books, the protagonist must deal with a destiny/fate/curse that is none of his doing, and must look towards his friends and show real determination to ensure that the resolution is more to his liking.  What else does a book alternative to Holes need?  Absolutely nothing!

Leave comments if you have any other suggestions for Holes alternatives or to select an age-old novel that needs refreshing with #CanLitChoices.