Author(s): Sacha Cotter & Josh Morgan

NZ Non-fiction | Kids' Winter Reading Guide 2025

Lately, things have been getting Charlie down. It’s like he’s got a big rock that just won’t go away.

He talks to Dad about it, and Dad brings out a dusty old book with a lot of tough rules. The first rule is you don’t talk about rocks (feelings). But the rules make things worse - Charlie’s ‘rock’ gets bigger, and everything feels dark and scary. They need some new rules - fast.

Bookseller Review

A Guide to Rocks is a weighty tome. In this glorious picture book, the team who bought us Dazzlehands and The Bomb, in both English and Te Reo, deliver on all counts again. The composition on each page between illustration and text strikes a seamless balance for the story to progress.

Here we have young Charlie being confronted with the age old dilemma of how to deal with his feelings. They can turn up in all shapes and sizes and soon resemble literal rocks that just hang around and won't go away. Those sharp, heavy clumps of stone can soon get on top of us if we let them, and Dad has some learning to do in this area as well.

With a beautiful light touch in tone and such expressive facial reactions, Morgan and Cotter offer sage guidance on how to best deal with those burdensome rocks and remind us that a problem shared is a problem halved. Sacha Cotter and Josh Morgan have once again “dazzle”d and “bomb”arded us with their brilliance.

Reviewed by Roger at Little Unity, Auckland