“Do you search for minerals everywhere?
Do you own more rocks than underwear?”

Kids are natural scientists because their hearts and minds are open to all possibilities. They love to explore, ask questions and hunt for things. They also love a good adventure story. I wrote SCAVENGER SCOUT: ROCK HOUND to fuel kids’ curiosity about the natural world, whether it’s rocks, the ocean or the mountains. I want to encourage kids to get outside and explore.

The character of Scavenger Scout lives for the thrill of the hunt and is partially inspired by this tongue-in-cheek definition of “rock hound”:

Scout may only be seven years old, but she is passionate about rocks and will climb a mountain, go deep-sea diving or spelunking–whatever she has to do to take home her treasured specimens. She’s not only in it for the gorgeous rocks, she is also drawn to the thrill of the hunt. Scavenger Scout

Seek-and-Find Element

I love seek-and-find books that are a story first and a seek-and-find second. The story of SCAVENGER SCOUT will appeal to kids who love to hunt and who love adventure, so why not give them the opportunity to help Scout find the rock on every page? In each vignette, Scout hunts for a different rock and kids get to hunt with her!

STEM-inspired Story with a Female Main Character

The world is changing, but there are still very few picture books with female main characters that use science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) to solve problems. It’s important that we read books like SCAVENGER SCOUT to our kids (both boys and girls) to show that any child can follow their dreams, regardless of gender.

Scout uses physics and engineering principals to get very large rocks into her magic backpack. Kids will delight in the real-life rock hounding tools Scout uses such as a crack hammer, chisel or a rock pick.

The Illustrations

I reviewed hundreds of illustrators’ portfolios (257 to be exact) before I found one that could bring my vision of Scout to life and also had the technical skill to illustrate the rocks. It was important to me that the illustrations of the rocks be faithful to the real thing. When I saw Yana Popova’s portfolio, I knew that she was the one. Her style is endearing and whimsical, with a touch of realism–perfect for children’s picture books.