A Home for Stone

‘So there he was, a single stone, looking lost and quite alone….’

It’s hard to resist collecting stones, especially when they’re as visually (and anthropomorphically) appealing as the one in this book. When a beachcombing child spots him lying on the sand, Stone’s little face is the picture of misery. Naturally, the child wants to help. But what should they do? Allow the tide to wash Stone away, or find him a new home; somewhere this handsome but unhappy fellow can be with others just like him?

Billed as a story about finding friends in unexpected places, the bold artwork and rhyming text in this warm-hearted picturebook also explore the idea that ‘fitting in’ does not mean ‘being the same’. Our differences bring pleasures and possibilities, together with room for learning, change and growth, and if we go in search of them, we’ll enjoy the ‘brighter company’ they offer.

Corrinne Averiss’s pacy text reads well aloud. Many locations for Stone’s new home are considered, from a nearby rockpool or dry stone wall to the rockery in the garden of the child’s marvellous boat-shaped home. But Stone’s downturned mouth betrays his dislike for all of them, so the child deposits him on a bedside table with a trio of other treasures. And finally, beside a leaf, a coin and a shiny shell, Stone smiles at last. Could it be that what he’d wanted all along was the energy and inspiration that comes from not being the same? This can be tricky territory to explore without overtly moralizing, but Averiss addresses the issue head-on in lively, appealing fashion, and pulls the whole story off with well-judged panache.

Rosalind Beardshaw’s illustrations have a fresh, modern feel, bringing the child’s solitary world to life in a stylized but emotionally convincing way. Much is achieved with expressive lines: even the youngest audiences will read the characters’ facial reactions quite readily, and Beardshaw’s depiction of the child’s beach-hut home with its turquoise port-hole is particularly appealing. These are landscapes that readers will want to inhabit and explore, and wondering what could be round a corner just out of sight is definitely part of the fun.