Southwest Children's Literature Main Page

Before reading Everybody Needs a Rock, I asked the class, "In which region of the country do we live?" They replied by saying the Southwest, or the desert. I then said that I was going to read a Southwest literature book to them and I gave them a summary of the story. While I read the story, a scribe wrote each of the ten rules on how to choose a rock on the board. After reading the story, the children ventured outside and had to follow the ten rules to select a rock of their own. They then had to name the rock and write a story about the origin of the rock based on its smell.

George

By T.J.

My rock is special. There is no other rock in the world like mine. I think it smells like lava. So I think my rock was formed in the center of the earth. It might have shot out of a volcano, or it might have been somebody else's special rock and could have traveled from anywhere in the world. It really makes me wonder where it actually came from.

Jim

By Lara

My rock's name is Jim. Jim's story is this. Jim came from Florida. He came from the surface. He was right next to an orange tree in an orange grove. When I was there visiting my cousin who lives on an orange grove, she told me how to find one and showed me hers. So, I decided to go find myself a rock. Then as I was looking, I saw a split open orange. Under it was my rock. Since he was under the orange, he smelled exactly like one. I have had him from then until today.

Pink Stuff

By Danielle

I found this rock near the ocean and it smells like salt similar to the ocean. I named it Pink Stuff because it's pink with a little white. Now I know I am going to have great luck even if I live in Tucson away from the ocean. It sort of smells like sand too, because when you are by the beach you smell the sand, water, and breeze of what's in the air. My rock also has a gouged edge because maybe it got washed up onto the shore and I was the lucky person to find it! It has dark pink, light pink, white and crystal. Every rock has a home. I think mine could have broken off a big rock, maybe its mom! I really like this rock because it's my favorite color and it really caught my eye, and I love the smell of the ocean. I hope it brings me good luck.

"Nicky"

By Joe

Smells like chocolate chip cookie dough

Nicky's great, great, great, great aunt Susie lived in the Oort Cloud. She didn't like it there so when she was in Rockamentary School she took a road trip to the sun, but when they got to the pit stop on earth they didn't want to leave. So after 2,000,000,000,000,000,000 years, Nicky was broken off of the family rock and had to learn to fend for himself in the real world. Since there isn't any rock schools on earth, he had to teach himself. I found him about to take on a piece of bedrock four times his size and saved him. We're great pals.