My Awesome Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals

by Gary Lewis

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

My Awesome Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals is an engaging and accessible introduction to rocks and minerals, safe and responsible collection and identification, and geology. Released 12th Nov 2019 by Rockridge Press, it's 232 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats.

I've been promoting STE(A)M education for decades. Finding and nurturing learners' (not just kids) interests are key to making the next generation of scientists and technologists. I honestly have yet to meet a person who wasn't at least moderately interested in rocks and minerals. They're fascinating. That is what the author harnesses and his own enthusiasm and broad knowledge of the subject shines through.

The book has a logical format and easy to use layout. An introduction to earth science is followed by a chapter on safe and responsible specimen collection including procedures and accepted standard record-keeping methods. The following section contains a compendium of individual minerals and metals with notes on density, molecular composition, interesting facts, and photographs. There are lots and lots of photographs. The book also contains a nice field journal which can be used as is (it includes specimen numbers to correlate with the entries in the journal) or as a template for a separate field journal. I really like that the information in this book uses standard notations and accepted journal formats which will serve as a good basis for scientific record keeping later on in life. Though ostensibly aimed at younger readers, it's a perfectly good introduction to the earth sciences for all ages.

It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. The book also includes a nice (interactive) links and resources list, a bibliography, glossary, and short author bio. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free.

This would be a nice selection for school or classroom library, a good basis for a classroom or library activity or homeschool unit on earth science, or a super gift, maybe bundled with some of the collecting gear the author mentions in the book.

Very well done and appealing. Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.