Stone by Stone

Every wall, road and bridge starts out as rock, and rock has a long history before anyone touches it. This picture book follows stone from its formation deep inside the Earth to the structures people have made from it, treating geology, engineering and human history as one connected story.

It opens with a vivid account of the rock cycle, then moves through the many ways people have used stone over time: ancient cairns, castles, the Great Wall of China and the cities of the Maya. What we choose to build, the book suggests, reveals who we are, what we value, what we fear and what we hope to become. Stone is used to rebuild, to connect and to imagine a different place for ourselves on the planet.

Melissa Koch's lyrical text keeps the people behind the science in view, while Victoria Tentler-Krylov's energetic illustrations capture the heat of the earth and the inventive spirit in all of us. Back matter goes deeper into the rock cycle, engineering and the use of stone through history, and adds a timeline, a bibliography and a list of further resources.