Ricky, the Rock That Couldn't Roll by Mr. Jay

Hey, Story Seekers!

We've got a bunch of rocks rolling down a hill.

Which sounds perfectly normal until you remember that rocks do not generally organize recreational activities.

These do.

And one of them has a problem.

Ricky, the Rock That Couldn't Roll, written by Mr. Jay and illustrated by Erin Wozniak, follows a group of rock friends who love rolling around together.

Pebbles. Boulders. Round rocks. Big rocks. Little rocks.

Everybody rolls.

Except Ricky.

Ricky is flat on one side. He can try all he wants, but gravity has reviewed his application and denied it.

Readit would like everybody to know that sliding down a hill still sounds pretty fun.

He's not wrong.

Book Breakdown

Ricky's friends like rolling down their favorite hill.

Ricky would like to roll with them.

There's one fairly rock-sized obstacle.

He's shaped differently. The others are round enough to roll. Ricky has a flat side, so when the group gets moving, he's left sitting there.

His friends don't like that.

So they start thinking.

First they haul Ricky up a steep slope so he can slide. That works differently from rolling, but it gets him moving.

Then they try something involving rubber balls.

They're not giving up.

Eventually the group works out a solution with mud and sticks and vines that gives Ricky a rounder outside.

And Ricky rolls.

That's the story. But the interesting part is everything between "Ricky can't" and "Ricky can."

His friends don't shrug and head down the hill without him.

They try things.

Something doesn't work? Try something else. Still doesn't work? Keep thinking.

That's where Mr. Jay puts the energy. Friendship, problem solving, persistence, and refusing to leave somebody sitting at the top of a hill by himself.

The whole book rhymes, which gives it a natural read-aloud bounce. The rocks have different shapes and sizes and faces, and Wozniak gets considerably more emotion out of these hunks of stone than your average driveway gravel manages.

There's also a ladybug named Bria hanging around the group.

Her name is not decoration.

Mr. Jay is Jay Miletsky, and his publisher tells the story plainly. In 2017 he went looking for picture books for and about children with disabilities and came away disheartened by what was out there. His daughter Bria, five at the time, has severe cerebral palsy, and reading to her has always been one of his great joys.

So he wrote the book he couldn't find. Something hopeful, that wouldn't shut out families of typically developing kids either.

That's where Ricky came from.

For teachers and librarians: Lyric & Stone, first published 2018. Part of the You Rock! Group books. Storyline Online recommends it for K through 2nd grade, and their read-aloud runs seven minutes. I couldn't find verified Lexile, ATOS or Guided Reading figures from a source I trust, which is common with independently published books and says nothing about the book.

Jungle Jimmy's Journal

There's something here I really like.

Nobody leaves.

Ricky can't do what everybody else is doing, and his friends don't say, "Sorry, Ricky. That's the game."

They stop.

They notice.

They think.

Then they start trying things, and that's good story fuel, because each attempt hands the reader something new to wonder about.

Will this work?

Nope.

Okay. What now?

Kids catch that rhythm immediately. You don't have to explain perseverance to a room when the characters are busy persevering in front of them.

And because it rhymes, you've got momentum built in. Give the failed attempts room to fail. Let the kids see the next idea coming and guess whether it'll work. That guessing is the whole engine of the middle of this book, and if you read it too fast you'll flatten it.

Here's the thing I'd point out to a parent, though, and it's the part that stuck with me.

Look at what the friends actually do.

They don't fix Ricky's feelings. They don't give a speech about how it's what's on the inside that counts. They go get mud.

They work the problem, badly, several times in a row, until something takes.

That's a real thing kids can copy. Most books about including somebody stop at being nice about it. This one has the friends actually build something, and it takes them three tries.

One reader, Christine Ryan, read the ending the way I did: "I understood immediately that this was a prosthesis to allow Ricky to join his friends and do activities that he wanted to do. It shows how our desire to help each other and work together can allow us to come up with solutions."

That's it exactly.

Somebody built their friend the thing he needed so he could do the thing he wanted.

One more note worth having. When Storyline Online produced their read-aloud of this book, they had it read by Marissa Bode, the actress who played Nessarose in Wicked. She's the first wheelchair user ever cast in that role, and she picked up SAG and NAACP nominations for it.

That casting wasn't an accident, and I don't think it needs any commentary from me.

Readit's Review

Okay.

Rocks rolling down a hill sounds AWESOME.

I want to do it.

Not as myself.

I would get hurt.

I mean if I was a rock.

Ricky being flat is a problem if the game is rolling, but then they figure out he can SLIDE.

I would have kept doing that.

Sliding might actually be better.

Everybody could race Ricky.

Then they try the rubber balls, which is a good idea even though it doesn't work.

I like that his friends keep inventing stuff.

Nobody says, "Too bad, Ricky."

They keep coming back.

My favorite part is that it takes them THREE tries.

Because usually in books somebody has one good idea and it works immediately and that is not how anything goes.

Also, I want to find Bria the ladybug in the pictures.

A ladybug hanging around with a bunch of rocks has questions of her own.

What Others Think

Goodreads shows 4.27 out of 5 from 583 ratings, but for this particular book that number is close to meaningless, and I'll tell you why.

Ricky doesn't live on Goodreads. He lives in elementary schools.

Mr. Jay travels the country doing author visits, reading this book to kids and then asking them what they made of it. Cranford, New Jersey. Woodbridge, Virginia. School after school, year after year.

And here's the part that got my attention.

Schools have started building Kindness Rock Gardens because of it. Students paint rocks and plant them out front, and local papers keep writing it up. That isn't a marketing campaign. That's a book that got loose.

I've been writing kids' books long enough to tell you how rare that is. Most picture books get read and shelved. This one made children go outside and do something, and then the next class did it, and then the school down the road. You can count Goodreads ratings all day and never see that.

It's on Storyline Online too, which is not an easy room to get into.

Back on Goodreads, the positives cluster tight. Friendship, perseverance, teamwork, and the rhyme.

Booked.Shaye keeps it to the point: "It rhymes, and encourages team work & friendship."

Alex Richey: "So sweet!!!"

And alexia turns in the shortest review that tells you the most: "this book had me crying over a rock."

Laura Weakland pulled out the two lines that do the most work in the book, and they're worth seeing before you buy it. There's Ricky's friend hitting on the idea, "Eureka! he shouted. I know just what to do!" And then the line that closes the thing out: "When you are surrounded by love, you always have hope."

Teachers are using it, too. Maggie Davis wrote about setting it up with her class ahead of time so students would be watching for the theme while she read, which is a sensible way to run it in a room.

Now the criticism, because there is some and you should have it.

Readers are split on the artwork. Some love Wozniak's rocks. Others find the palette muted. Laura's version: "It's a cute story, but I wish the illustrations were a little more colorful." Having looked at it, I'd say she has a point. This is a gray-and-green book, and next to something like a Lois Ehlert or a Pete the Cat it's going to read as quiet on the shelf.

And it runs long. Emily: "Cute little story about friendship. A little long but overall cute." That matches my read. There are three separate rescue attempts, and with a wiggly three-year-old you may feel attempt number two.

For a kindergarten or first-grade room, though, the length is fine and the repetition is the point.

Belly Laugh Scale

2 out of 5: Giggle Territory

There are playful rock personalities here and the absurdity of a recreational rock-rolling club is worth a grin, but laughs aren't what this book is for.

The fun is the rhyme, the faces, and the three increasingly ridiculous attempts to get Ricky moving.

Friendship and persistence are carrying the weight, not comedy.

Two out of five.

No stones were harmed in the scoring of this book.

Probably.

Final Explorer Verdict

I'd hand Ricky, the Rock That Couldn't Roll to kids roughly 4 to 8, and it's a particularly good fit for kindergarten through second grade, which is where Storyline Online puts it.

The rhyme gives an adult something enjoyable to read out loud. The repeated attempts give kids something to predict. Wozniak's rocks give them faces to watch.

And the strongest part is the simplest.

Ricky's friends notice that somebody they care about is sitting on the sidelines.

They care enough to stop rolling.

Then they get to work, and they keep at it after the first idea flops, and after the second one flops too.

That's the bit I wouldn't lose. And judging by the rock gardens out in front of all those schools, a lot of kids didn't lose it either.

If being the odd one out is what your kid connects with here, I wrote one about that too. Little Jimmy Says, "Same Is Lame" is also a rhyming book for 4 to 8, and Little Jimmy's answer to being different is to lean all the way into it.

Ricky wants in on the game.

Little Jimmy wants a different game.

Both of them are fine.

Keep exploring, Story Seekers!

Jungle Jimmy & Readit