Book Review: Rocks, Minerals & Gems by Sean Callery and Miranda Smith

Rocks, Minerals & Gems
by Sean Callery and Miranda Smith (j552 Cal)

I picked up this marvelous reference book a few years ago, after my wife and I had gone to the extravaganza known as The Denver Gem & Mineral Shows (2019 show booklet), as a general guide to exactly what the title says — “Rocks, Minerals & Gems” — and am happy to see that this title has also now been added to the libraries’ collection.

The style/format of this volume reminds me of the Dorling Kindersley style of publishing, though it is not from that publisher — it’s actually from Scholastic, which I remember as the educational publisher I would order books from when I was going to school, eons ago. The book is broken up into three broad categories — Minerals, Rocks, and Gems. Each category starts with a beautiful photography “gallery” of examples of the different types of materials in each section. Under “Minerals” there is a “mineral gallery”, a “meteorite gallery”, and “more minerals”. Under “Rocks”, there are galleries for “Igneous”, “Sedimentary”, “Metamorphic” and “fossils”. Under “Gems”, there are two large gem galleries. Within each section after the galleries, there two page spreads dedicated to dozens of the different examples of the type of material listed — complete with gorgeous photos, scientific descriptions and little “sidebar” articles associated with the main topics — sometimes historical notes, sometimes related to jewelry, etc.

If you’re looking for an in-depth exploration about any of the topics covered in this broad, general tome, you’re better off looking elsewhere. But if you’d like to learn more information in general about the rocks, minerals and gems of the world we inhabit, along with absolutely beautiful photographs, then I highly recommend sampling this book! The only reason it doesn’t earn a rating of “10” from me is that sometimes the articles seem almost too short!

Note: For some reason, this was classified in the youth non-fiction collection, and while it is appropriate for somewhat younger readers, I strongly recommended it for adults, instead!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Periodical Table, also by Callery, and also published by Scholastic — looks to be identical in style and format to this “Rocks, Minerals & Gems” entry!]

[ publisher’s official Rocks, Minerals & Gems web page ] | [ official Sean Callery web site ]

Check out the October 2015 issue of Scott C.'s library newsletter "It's All Geek to Me!" for more materials about Rocks, Minerals, Gems and rockhounding!

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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