The Rock and Gem Book: And Other Treasures of the Natural World

Like all of the DK/Smithsonian books, this book is visually stunning. Showing pictures of rocks and gems, along with a little information about where they came from, this book does not go into much depth. Only about half of this book covers rocks and gems, while the other half is devoted to other natural elements, such as fossils, shells, etc. This is an informative and colorful book, but it isn't exactly what I was looking for. It would not be useful as a "field guide" or as a detailed reference on rocks and gems. Please mark if you find my review helpful. Thank you so much!

I have a confession. I own many geology books, college books, a lab book, a mini handheld book and a couple other as well. Geology is definitely a personal passion. I bought this book originally for my niece for Christmas to go with a rocks and minerals set I also got. I thumbed through the book thinking I’d be able to put it down and move on to the wrapping stage. I was sucked down into the vortex of this book! An hour later I realized I would just “delay” wrapping this item. A day later I decided I could send a second copy of this book for her birthday instead!

This book is absolutely amazing. This is coming from a mom that owns HUNDREDS of children books ranging from baby through those "young adult" books that grown ups are loving. We have a lot of educational books on various subjects. My kids are really into rocks these days so for Christmas I added this & another book that looked promising to our 'library.' Both books are incredible. They arrived looking brand new (which was a miracle after how the box itself looked). Both books were clearly made very well. Absolutely a high quality product! The pictures are filled with pictures & offer a perfect reading aide. And the reading material is wonderful. The books are formated so well that my first grade spent a whole hour looking through them both (we are lucky if we get five minutes usually) after he had already been through them several times. I would recommend this book to anyone who is considering it.

My 7 year old son is very interested in gems and rocks, and this book is big and beautiful! Very colorful photos, interesting information but not too dense for us to read together. He has loved looking at all the gems, and it has made me want to start collecting as well!

This book is not a field guide. It is an introduction to rocks and fossils for kids. It is the most engaging book on the topic that I have found. Kids come up with all sorts of questions that lead into investigations and sometimes experiments. I do have a rock collection with basic ways to tell them apart and test their properties. I also like to pair this book with National Geographic's Rock, Mineral, & Fossil kit to make a nice gift (do not forget to have some sort of storage for the rocks - a lidded, divided storage box would suffice. ) Overall, I recommend this book because kids find it so engaging. A great introduction to rocks.

It took me hours to get this wrapped. I couldn't stop looking at it. What an absolutely beautiful book! It's divided into sections for different types of rocks. Who knew there are this many? We're learning so much from it.

This is a beautiful book. We gave it to our 16 year old son along with a rock tumbler for his birthday and he loved both so much. This book is so colorful and educational..seriously hard to stop reading and looking at. Highly recommend. The rock tumbler we got was also perfect for our rock loving and collecting family. https://smile.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Hobby-Rock-Tumbler/dp/B01LQCIL88/ref=sr_1_4?crid=1E9VXCWTTO3IN&keywords=national+geographic+rock+tumbler&qid=1577803366&sprefix=national%2Caps%2C184&sr=8-4

This is a great first book on the rocks and gems. I have been so interested in the rocks, minerals and gems out there that make beautiful jewelry. I have some jewelry made with rocks and gems that I have never heard of before. Example-- magnesite and unakite. Ladies, Google it and you can learn about them. This book has great illustrations and is easy to read. I recommend it for rock hounds.

I was very happily surprised by this book. The reviews made me think this book was sub par but that is far from the truth. The pictures are amazing (they blew me away) and the information is short, sweet, and straight to the point. This is great for me and my children. It answers our curiousity and leaves room for further investigation where ever we want with no pressure to know it all with massive amounts of texts!!! I LOVE it!!!

Outstanding book we discovered at our local Gelato place! Had to look it up and was happy to find it. Daughter, 5, is reading it and gets upset if we try to close it because we lose her page. ; ) Great leave of detail - we learned a lot from the first reading. Endless pictures - both of rocks and minerals and where they originate. Highly recommend for anyone with a rock collection and/or interest.

Like all of the DK/Smithsonian books, this book is visually stunning. Showing pictures of rocks and gems, along with a little information about where they came from, this book does not go into much depth. Only about half of this book covers rocks and gems, while the other half is devoted to other natural elements, such as fossils, shells, etc. This is an informative and colorful book, but it isn't exactly what I was looking for. It would not be useful as a "field guide" or as a detailed reference on rocks and gems. Please mark if you find my review helpful. Thank you so much!

I have a confession. I own many geology books, college books, a lab book, a mini handheld book and a couple other as well. Geology is definitely a personal passion. I bought this book originally for my niece for Christmas to go with a rocks and minerals set I also got. I thumbed through the book thinking I’d be able to put it down and move on to the wrapping stage. I was sucked down into the vortex of this book! An hour later I realized I would just “delay” wrapping this item. A day later I decided I could send a second copy of this book for her birthday instead!

This book is absolutely amazing. This is coming from a mom that owns HUNDREDS of children books ranging from baby through those "young adult" books that grown ups are loving. We have a lot of educational books on various subjects. My kids are really into rocks these days so for Christmas I added this & another book that looked promising to our 'library.' Both books are incredible. They arrived looking brand new (which was a miracle after how the box itself looked). Both books were clearly made very well. Absolutely a high quality product! The pictures are filled with pictures & offer a perfect reading aide. And the reading material is wonderful. The books are formated so well that my first grade spent a whole hour looking through them both (we are lucky if we get five minutes usually) after he had already been through them several times. I would recommend this book to anyone who is considering it.

My 7 year old son is very interested in gems and rocks, and this book is big and beautiful! Very colorful photos, interesting information but not too dense for us to read together. He has loved looking at all the gems, and it has made me want to start collecting as well!

This book is not a field guide. It is an introduction to rocks and fossils for kids. It is the most engaging book on the topic that I have found. Kids come up with all sorts of questions that lead into investigations and sometimes experiments. I do have a rock collection with basic ways to tell them apart and test their properties. I also like to pair this book with National Geographic's Rock, Mineral, & Fossil kit to make a nice gift (do not forget to have some sort of storage for the rocks - a lidded, divided storage box would suffice. ) Overall, I recommend this book because kids find it so engaging. A great introduction to rocks.

It took me hours to get this wrapped. I couldn't stop looking at it. What an absolutely beautiful book! It's divided into sections for different types of rocks. Who knew there are this many? We're learning so much from it.

This is a beautiful book. We gave it to our 16 year old son along with a rock tumbler for his birthday and he loved both so much. This book is so colorful and educational..seriously hard to stop reading and looking at. Highly recommend. The rock tumbler we got was also perfect for our rock loving and collecting family. https://smile.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Hobby-Rock-Tumbler/dp/B01LQCIL88/ref=sr_1_4?crid=1E9VXCWTTO3IN&keywords=national+geographic+rock+tumbler&qid=1577803366&sprefix=national%2Caps%2C184&sr=8-4

This is a great first book on the rocks and gems. I have been so interested in the rocks, minerals and gems out there that make beautiful jewelry. I have some jewelry made with rocks and gems that I have never heard of before. Example-- magnesite and unakite. Ladies, Google it and you can learn about them. This book has great illustrations and is easy to read. I recommend it for rock hounds.

I was very happily surprised by this book. The reviews made me think this book was sub par but that is far from the truth. The pictures are amazing (they blew me away) and the information is short, sweet, and straight to the point. This is great for me and my children. It answers our curiousity and leaves room for further investigation where ever we want with no pressure to know it all with massive amounts of texts!!! I LOVE it!!!

Outstanding book we discovered at our local Gelato place! Had to look it up and was happy to find it. Daughter, 5, is reading it and gets upset if we try to close it because we lose her page. ; ) Great leave of detail - we learned a lot from the first reading. Endless pictures - both of rocks and minerals and where they originate. Highly recommend for anyone with a rock collection and/or interest.

Lots of beautiful, color pictures. Easy to read information. I bought for my grandson that's a pretty serious rock hound. The reading is above his level right now but adults can share it with him and this is a book that he'll never grow out of. Very nice.

Arrived in timely manner and as described. Great educational book about rocks and minerals. Gave to my 9 yr old grandson, so he could learn more about the rocks he hunts. When he broke open some geodes, he looked up the rocks in the book. A great reference book.

Fantastic pictures and a nice gift for a child that’s a rock and gem hound. We got this for a young boy (age 6). A lot of the words are going to be way too big for him, but it’s a great book for his parents to read to him for now. He loved the pictures.

My kids (6 and 4) are really into gems and rocks right now, so we spent a good hour at bedtime flipping through this book and reading some of the facts while learning the names and appearances of minerals, jewels, gems, etc. They loved it! They grab it and look through it all the time now. Educational AND interesting! 5 stars for sure.

This book is a great overview of rocks and gems. Has easy to read descriptions and beautiful color photos typical of DK guides. Large font but useful for all ages. Highly recommend for the budding geologist or rock lover. Fun read!!

Lots of great photos and easy to understand information about all kinds of rocks, fossils, and gems. We keep it out as a "coffee table book" and my 11 year old budding geologist enjoys paging through it. Also a great summer learning activity without feeling like it's school!!

my 6 year old loves this book. it goes over so many aspects, shows types of historical things built with the stones. plus, it challenges his higher reading skills so he doesn’t get bored with it. great pictures plus engaging reading parts.

I am very into crystals and all my books I own are more so metaphysical crystal books so it's nice to have a book with geological aspects of stones as well - nicely organized and great specimen examples

This book is absolutely amazing. So many pictures. My boy is obsessed with rocks and hardly puts this book down.

was a gift and the person was thrilled with this fun and informative book. well done.

This is a KID's book which I was not aware of. However it is really a well laid out, quality book to put on the coffee table, kids or not. It is NOT a guide to rocks and gems as I thought--at least not for the serious beginning gem enthusiast.

Beautifully illustrated and interesting to read. Reccommend to everyone who is interested in natural stones

Very nice book - lovely illustrations. The top of the mailing envelope was completely torn open. Fortunately, only the paper cover was wrinkled a little. I don’t know how it got through the postal service without getting torn up or lost.

My daughter loves rocks! I got this for her 7th birthday along with some geodes and other nature type items. She loves it. Informative and plenty of pictures!

My 6 yr old is enamored with geology. This is the perfect book for his age, heavy on pictures, light on words but enough that we can read together. He takes the book everywhere he goes now. Highly recommended for young inspiring geologists.

I purchased this book as a gift - I think the suggested age range was too young. That said the book will go with his mom on a vacation where he’ll see geological wonders so she can read it it him.

Great color photos and info. Enough information for my 11 year old's curiosity although I wish there were more detailed info myself.

Grandchildren love the book. They started collecting stones and gems. The pictures are wonderful and full of color.

Fabulous book full of beautiful pictures and interesting things. My 11 year old granddaughter is in science club and loves these kind of things. I also got the Geodes, but waiting for her to come on vacation and we'll open them together.

This is a great book!! The pictures are amazing and it very interesting. My grandkids form age 5 to 15 love it.

I was surprised my 9 y/o son was so loving this book. But the pictures and quality and construction of the book is perfect!

Good for adults and children. Nice pictures, good descriptions. Well done.

Beautiful book. Got this one for my grandson but ended up buying myself one.

WOnderful book with good information for the young reader. This book has a lot of information on each page to keep a young reader busy for a good amount of time.

I combined p this with a book about fossils for my six year old grandson. He enjoys collecting rocks in the Mojave Desert near our home.

My grandkids love it!

My Grandson loved this book that I sent him!

Very well written. Lots of information on gemstones.

Lots of information. My kids loved it.

I bought this for my sons 11th birthday and am very happy with it. He loves reading it, it has a ton of information and is very interesting.

This was a gift for my granddaughters. They are interested in gemology and enjoyed this book.

It has a seashells section, which is a nice surprise

I purchased this as per a request for a holiday gift. It was delivered before expected date, and I'm sure it will be enjoyed !

I purchased this for my 7-year-old grandson, a budding rock hound. It's very well illustrated and interesting to him as a new reader. Happy I made the purchase, he definitely likes it. Was hard for me to part with, as the subject is captivating for any age.

like the rock knowledge.

Great book for 10 year old. He loves it. Lots of interesting information.

Gave this to a Rock Hound :) and she was delighted with it.

Ver big - good info.

Good price

This book is great. Hardcover with beautiful pictures and lots of descriptions

Great

Excellent! Cannot fault the Rock & Gem Book. Beautiful photography and graphics, clear, informal text; pitched to younger readers yet full of facts and concepts.

Grandaughter.

BEAUTIFUL and BRIGHT photos through out the book. Photos go to the edge and out of bounds which is awesome (no wasted space!). Want to get kids interested in rocks & geology? This is a great started.

Well-organized and very informative with great pictures. Just what I wanted. Thanks.

My nephew loves it!!

Great

Got for nephew who is into rocks. It is his go to read before bed! Wonderful photos and stories.

We love this book it has great vibrant eye catching images for my 2 year old to keep her engaged & so much information to share with her.

bought for my 6 year old granddaughter and it was great

Best book ever. Bought for my 8- years old daughter. We enjoy together. I wish I had one long ago:)

This is a beautiful book! It has great pictures and illustrations. I am excited to give it to me kids.

I really like how this goes over everything ever fossilized. I really goes into geology and really made my 8 year old happy with this birthday present.

Mailed this book to young grandkids in Florida, and they love it !!! They read it every day !!!

My grandson was absolutely delighted to receive this wonderful book. He was fascinated by all the pictures and really enjoyed learning about all the different types of rocks and gems! Great resource of information for curious minds!

Nice purchase for a budding “round hound” who is eight.

bought for my daughters bday, she loves rocks and gems, the book has so many beautiful brightly colored pictures, i know she will love it

excellent condition. size is great for young person's handling . paper is good quality

My eight year old is loving this book! Great images and very engaging info if you are into rocks and gems.

Excelente libro

The book even includes shells and the like in it's variety of 'rocks' covered.

Great book, very instructive. Highly recommend

Great book for children!!

Would recommend this book. Very very vivid pictures. Just wish it had more info for the price.

This is a really excellent book. I bought one for my grandsons and one for myself.

Grandson love it.

the book was more for beginners i ordered the wrong book

Our grandson loves this book.

Beautiful book. Grandkid wants to be a geologist and she spends hours looking at this book

What you see is what you get! Great quality and info!

not exactly what I expected, but interesting

Awesome book - bought it as a gift for an 8 year old rock-hound.

Great book for 5 year old and 8 year old! Encouraged interaction between the kids and the adults who read sections to the kids.

Perfect just what I wanted and arrived quickly and in great condition

It's gorgeous! I love it! My sons (5 and7) love it too! Great images and very interesting. A book they can grow into!

Very comprehensive, and packed with amazing photos- our 2 and 4 year olds were blown away!

Great

Product was as described. The high resolution photos were gorgeous, and the information on each mineral/geode was well presented.

Great service! Love the book!!!

Very beautiful hard cover book for my eight-year-old daughter. This was a perfect birthday present for a child who loves to discover and loves to read.

the kids love it

Wonderful book. My son (6 years old) now has 3 of these Smithsonian books and loved them.

Beautiful book - my daughter loves it!!!

This is an amazing childrens book. The picture quality is excellent!

Great

Not the exact book I was looking for, but very informative and easy to use for my younger kids.

Love this book.

Its the Smithsonian, expected it to be great and it was. Well illustrated and detailed.

This is a great book for first time rock hounds!!!

Bright and colorful pages. My grand kids agrs 6 and 7 really enjoy looking up there gems, fossils ECT.

My son loves it

My son loves this nook. Great variety, bright pictures and the price was right.

My geode obsessed 7 year old loved this book!

good book. kid likes it

Very interesting

Great for children and adults!

Always Enjoyed The SMITHSONIAN As A Kid ! Absolutely Fascinated ! And This Book Is Awesome ! On Page 53 The Hope Diamond ? Got To See Under Glass ! The Picture Is Prettier ! Love It ! Thanks Again And Again Amazon ! Crammed With Such Beauty ! Page After Page ! Best Of The Best ! Only The SMITHSONIAN Should Own Such A Diamond ! Lethal In Private Ownership ! Book Much Safer ! And Happier !

Very visual for children and adults. Great book.

My little boy that is a rock nut got this book from Santa, and he fell in love with it. He went through, and showed us all his favorite things. It is a great guide for curious little future Indiana Jones. As usual, we have never been disappointed by anything put out by DK.

This is a really nice book!

Very interesting and informative.

The pictures are amazing... but it HEAVILY promotes evolution so if that is something you don't want your kids to be reading on MANY of the pages, I can't recommend it. I spent about an hour with a sharpie and ended up pasting two of the pages together they were so bad.

Look closely at this book's subtitle, (at least in the U.S. edition): "A Visual Encyclopedia of the Earth's Treasures". Two important points here - first, there is not a lot of text; second, the authors take a loopy and indiosyncratic shot at what constitutes a treasure. We start with 40 pages of rocks and their various classifications, and that is quite good and generally up to date and informative. Then we move on to minerals. The pictures are gorgeous, although the descriptions of the minerals are very dense and technical. Of most interest are observations about the uses to which the minerals are usually put. From minerals we drift into the topic of gems, and the distinction between "raw" and cut gems is made starkly clear. But then, without much of a hint about this from the title or the cover, we move into the world of fossils. This might be the best part of the book since the photos are excellent, the information is current, and the captioning gets a bit more chatty, upbeat, and interesting. For a young reader I sometimes suspect that all mineral photos, apart from being colorful and sort of neat, begin to blend together after a few pages. But with fossils you get worlds and worlds of cool stuff. Don't know why they aren't mentioned in the title or more featured on the cover. Anyway, from there, though, we move on to a lengthy section on "shells", and we get pages and pages of cowries, clams and chitons, which I have always felt could be summed up on a one page pamphlet titled "shells". No matter, though, because once the shells begin to pale we end with "treasures". It's over a dozen pages of random treasures - a Viking silver hoard in England, a famous pearl, a royal Chinese jade burial suit, and so on. So, this is really half a dozen different picture books in one, organized loosely around the theme of cool stuff you usually find on the ground. I'm actually O.K. with that and enjoyed the book, (although it could have used a bit less "shell" and a bit more fossil), but so as not to be disappointed it seems best for one to think of this as a coffee table picture book for browsing. On that scale it scores well. (Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book in exchange for a candid review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

This book has more than just rocks in it, and everything in it is gorgeous! It is a really wonderful showcase of interesting rocks and fossils (which entice the reader to want to learn more) without being boring in the "catalog-type" way that many rock and mineral books are. I think that that is due to the beautiful photos and the great variety of things shown. It is wonderful to see fossils, shells, Viking silver, etc. included in the book (where they can spark students' interests). The glossary is very well-done, too, since there are many terms that will be new to students. There are even some photos in the glossary, which are both illustrative and make it less intimidating, more like a continuation of the book that invites the student to keep reading. I highly recommend this book!

Beautiful publication...page turner...13 year old recipient loved the book...great education and enjoyment for all ages! Thank you!

Exactly as described. Big pictures and lots of information for you budding geologist.

This is the replacement second book I got, the first was even worse. If you are buying this in Orange County, CA beware as they are all warped, must have all been exposed to moisture.

Very good book and detailed about the rocks and minerals. My son used the book for a science fair project on crystals.

Well made comprehensive basic guide....

Great book for kids. My rock hound grandson loves it, and so do I.

There's a reason this book is popular! Its so well done. Beautiful pictures, very informative. Very very happy with purchase!

My grandson has a couple of books from this series and he loves them. He specifically requested this one as a gift and he wasn't disappointed, the photos are an excellent quality and there is lots of information. He spends hours reading and studying these books.

Great quality and beautiful pictures

Very high quality photos. Great descriptions of rocks (not my thing) but a big hit with the nephews.

Beautiful book. Bought for 7 year old son that’s in love with geology and different rocks.

O livro é muito bom. Explica bem a formação das rochas e a grande variedade de pedras do planeta. Para quem gosta de aprender coisas novas é um passatempo divertido.

as advertised.

My nephew loved this book! Great gift for kids.