Stick and Stone: A Heartwarming Friendship Adventure About Kindness and Sticking Together

Stick and Stone #1

by Beth Ferry, Tom Lichtenheld (Illustrator)

When Stick rescues Stone from a prickly situation with Pinecone, the pair becomes fast friends. But when Stick gets stuck, can Stone return the favor?

Author Beth Ferry's warm, rhyming text includes a subtle anti-bullying message even the youngest reader will understand. New York Times bestselling illustrator Tom Lichtenheld imbues Stick and Stone with energy, emotion, and personality to spare. The littlest of readers will love this funny board book about kindness and friendship!

Genres: Picture Books, Friendship, Childrens, Fiction, Storytime, Poetry, Humor

38 pages, Board Book

First published April 7, 2015

About the author

Beth Ferry is the author of the picture books Stick and Stone and Land Shark. Her family has cared for myriad pets, including two land sharks, a hedgehog, a blue-tongued skink, and a heap of hamsters, but her absolutely perfect pet is an English bulldog named Winston. She lives in New Jersey.

Reviews

[Eliza]

This is so, so short! There's barely any plot ... I mean, honestly, there is no plot. But it's cute for younger children. Not sure why I read this, to be honest.

[sAmAnE]

خوبه باز از بچگی انقدر تو‌ گوش بچه‌ها از دوستی و رفاقت و... میخونیم!!!

[Jon Nakapalau]

A really fun book about friendship. Very happy that I was able to read several pages in Spanish without looking at the English translation. Hope to build on my growing vocabulary and start to get a better feel for very simple sentence construction. Nice book for those just starting to learn Spanish.

[Laura]

I know everyone probably says this after reading Stick and Stone, but it’s rather irresistible...

Friends who stick up for each other rock!!! :)

A simple story that says so much with so few words. Friendship and fun shine through in the words and pictures. There’s even a bubble page! :D Bubbles dancing and floating off in the wind! These bright, clear pictures and messages make this book a hit in my book.

Fun and easy to read for young readers. Inspirational words to live by for all.

Be sure to pick this one up at your local Library or bookstore.

Highly recommended.

[Kelli]

This is such a sweet rhyming story. Light on text with a simple, fun illustrations, this story of friendship is well-suited for toddlers yet my seven-year-old asked me to take this out out of the library. "I love STICK AND STONE!" he said. So do I, bud...so do I. 4 stars.

[Shaikhah]

So cute for kids

[Rossy]

I've never wanted to hug two characters as much as I want to hug them and be her friend!
ADORABLE story
ADORABLE illustrations
ADORABLE characters
I'm sorry, I just loved it sooooooo much!!!



I must admit I was ready to cry when Stone couldn't find Stick. I may have been tempted to close the book, but shhh!

[N.a.f.a.s]

چه قشنگ بود

[J L's Bibliomania]

Despite having the fewest words, the story of the unlikely friendship between Stick and Stone was the best of the picture books I read during the October 2016 edition of Dewey's 24-hour Readathon. The spare text of Stick and Stone builds to a satisfying conclusion and I loved the illustrations by Tom Lichtenheld. This book would have been on frequent rotation it it had been available when my sons were in pre-school.

[Jasmine from How Useful It Is]

Read for my toddler’s bedtime. A story about a stick and a stone and somehow they found friendship in each other. Good illustrations!

Read from kindle unlimited.

[cookiemonger]

Meh.

I was looking through children's books for presents, and the art made this one stand out. It also promised an anti-bullying message, which I can get behind.

It didn't really deliver, though. The rhyming choice was fine, but the rhymes were all overly simple. Grammar and natural language were occasionally left behind. And the story... Well.

Stick and Stone are both alone and lonely. Then they meet in a not very interesting way. Pinecone makes fun of Stone, but a single word from Stick makes Pinecone go away. Seriously, he just says, "Vanish!" If I could have gotten rid of bullies that way... Then Stick and Stone play some more in a BFF montage, and a tornado whisks away Stick and Pinecone. Stick turns up stuck in a puddle, and Stone saves him. The end.

I don't really see the anti-bully message here. Pinecone being a bully isn't really established, addressed, or even explained. And the storm bit just seems tacked on, like the book wasn't long enough. It could have been longer if it had committed to its anti-bully message. Still, the art is cute, so you can just ignore all of the words. Saying it's a picture book is no excuse. Piggies in the Pumpkin Patch is a picture book about prepositions, with a simple exploration-return-home plot. The writing in that book blows this one out of the water.

"Best friendship." Ugh. Not gifting this book.

[Margaret]

Sticks and stones can be used to make homes. Stones and sticks can be used to shape words in dirt or sand. Sticks and stones can be used to channel water. Stones and sticks can be used to bring imagined miniature worlds into reality in fields, woodlands or even backyards. With skill they can supply warmth through fire. They hold, hide, mark, filter, and form. They are indispensable.

Together they are better. Stick and Stone (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, April 7, 2015) written by Beth Ferry with illustrations by Tom Lichtenheld introduces us to a stick and a stone who discover the benefits of not being alone. They fashion a friendship, firm and true.

My full recommendation: http://librariansquest.blogspot.com/2...

[Edward Sullivan]

Simple, warm, winning friendship story.

[Cheryl]

I'm sure there are plenty of other picture-books about friendship, but I'm also sure few are as adorable, fun, and relate-able as this one.

[Michelle Olson]

Loved the illustrations and the easy to read text. Super cute book.

[Rod Brown]

Simple and amusing. Didn't think it would work -- and it wasn't entirely successful -- but bonus star for carrying off the story of a stick and a stone as well as it did.

[Anastasia Wixson]

Kids books keep coming up on my fyp and I’m here for it lol

[Julie Stoddard]

My 6 year old son loves this book! He is aiming to memorize it (not a reader yet) and practices reading it to us almost every night and then listens intently as we read it to him. It's a sweet story and I am not tired of it yet which says a lot because we have read it and been read to from it every night for about 2 weeks. Today he pulled out some paper and began drawing a book called Tree and Friend where Ax Man tries to cut down Tree and Friend stops him. It's all based on how he sees the Stick Stone book. We picked it up at a used book store for only a few dollars and I'm so glad I said yes!

[Jennifer]

Great book for kids of all ages to show that "sticking" up for your friends "rocks" :-)

[maya]

Read this in the Kingston Indigo kids section with Haylie.

I didn’t understand the point of the pinecone not going to lie; it threw me off.

[Skye Elder]

Every year I read this and enjoy it just as much as I did the first time!!!
This is 100% one of my favorite picture books!!
Definitely recommend!

[Stephen Adams]

Opening:
[Holding book in lap] "Students when we think of characters, what are some of our favorite characters from books we've read?" [Allow students to respond] "Well what would you think if our main characters were. . ." [Reveal book from lap] "a stick and a stone? What kind of story could we have about a stick and a stone? Do you think they could be friends?" [Allow responses] "Sticks and stones are very different, but are all of our friends the same as ourselves?" [Wait for group response] That's right, we need many different people to make our life interesting, we don't all want to just spend time with ourselves right? Let's see what happens to Stick and Stone." [Begin reading]

Opening moves & rationalization:
Ask children to make connections to a previously read text
By asking students about their favorite characters from other books you can get students excited by remembering these tales from their past. This can lead them to look forward to the characters in the book they are about to read.

Raise questions to spark curiosity
Students will know what a stone and stick are, but what kind of adventure could they have? How can a rock and stick become friends? Allowing students to grasp with these strange questions can perk their excitement about learning how this came to be.

Lay the groundwork for children's understanding of diverse settings and people
Students will have some experience with seeing people with surface level differences. By pointing out how different a stick and stone are students can get excited to see how a friendship will develop.

[Abigail]

Lonely Stick and solitary Stone become friends in this sing-song picture-book about friendship and loyalty. After Stick stands up for Stone against Pinecone the bully, the two become an inseparable pair. Then a storm sends Stick flying, and it is Stone's turn to come to the rescue...

Author Beth Ferry, who made her picture-book debut with Stick and Stone, delivers a simple rhyming text - no more than a few words per page - that works quite well with illustrator Tom Lichtenheld's pencil and watercolor artwork. I liked the interplay here between word and image, as round Stone is described as a zero and narrow Stick as a one, but together they make a (perfect, one presumes) ten. Recommended to anyone looking for children's stories about bullying, friendship, and loyalty for the younger picture-book set.

[Tara Strosnider]

When Stick rescues Stone from a prickly situation with a Pinecone, the pair becomes fast friends. But when Stick gets stuck, can Stone return the favor?
Author Beth Ferry makes a memorable debut with a warm, rhyming text that includes a subtle anti-bullying message even the youngest reader will understand. New York Times bestselling illustrator Tom Lichtenheld imbues Stick and Stone with energy, emotion, and personality to spare.
        In this funny story about kindness and friendship, Stick and Stone join George and Martha, Frog and Toad, and Elephant and Piggie, as some of the best friend duos in children’s literature.

Story about friendship

Friendship and fun shine throughout the pictures

[Akoss]

This book was a sweet and "oh" so well written book about friendship, what it means and how it can change your life for the better.
The sentences are shorts and perfectly matched the illustrations, one page after the other. We absolutely loved reading it and cannot wait to add it to our own library!

[Jessica Leake]

I enjoyed this book a lot. I think the rhyming throughout the book, was my favorite part. The pictures in the book also were very well illustrated. I think this is a great book for children to understand what a rhyme is. It can also be a book for lesson also.

[Meredith]

Super cute, and great book about friendship. I absolutely love the pictures. Can't wait to read this one to a group.

[Kate prefers books to people]

Super short bedtime story about friendship for little kids. Most pages have 1-2 words. No plot, but the art is calming and it's a good book to wind down with.

[Fatemehshahvari]

اگر بدون نوشته بود به‌نظرم بهتر بود...
یا ایراد از ترجمه بود...
یکی از اینا و زیاد خوشم نیومد.
تکراری هم بود.

[Emily]

Really short with not many words per page at all