The Books

Rocks in His Head

by Carol Otis Hurst

Hardcover, 32 pages

Published by Greenwillow Books (2001-05-08)

List Price: $17.99

Actual Price: $15.38

See Used and New offers (From $0.07)

Amazon Description

Some people collect stamps. Other people collect coins. Carol Otis Hurst's father collected rocks. Nobody ever thought his obsession would amount to anything. They said, "You've got rocks in your head" and "There's no money in rocks." But year after year he kept on collecting, trading, displaying, and labeling his rocks. The Depression forced the family to sell their gas station and their house, but his interest in rocks never wavered. And in the end the science museum he had visited so often realized that a person with rocks in his head was just what was needed.

Anyone who has ever felt a little out of step with the world will identify with this true story of a man who followed his heart and his passion.

One Potato Review

Modest, like the amateur mineralogist of the title - and important like that mineralogist too. Here is a story told from the perspective of an inconspicuous narrator (Hurst?) about her father, and it has the ring of historical truth, fit together like the pieces of Model T Ford which James Stevenson lovingly illustrates along the way. When the stock market crashes in 1929, the dad with “rocks in his head” needs to shutter the filling station which has furnished both a livelihood and a showcase for his life-long collection of stones, then takes a job as a janitor at a venerable museum of science where somebody finally recognizes his fascination with a future - college degree or not. This is about following your dreams and all that, but it’s equally a tribute to the sort of independent thinking which sometimes permits those dreams to illuminate others. Attention gatekeepers. Most of the really good stuff you can’t list on a resumé.     

Related Blog Entries

Comments

Name:

Email:

Location:

URL:

Add a Comment:

Notify me of follow-up comments?