“Petra” by Marianna Coppo
This is the story of a rock named Petra with an imagination as big as the sky and optimism enough to fill the ocean. I instantly fell in love with her when I saw the cover and when I read her story that love grew. She started out thinking she was a mountain, however she was not dismayed in the least when a dog picked her up and she learned she was a pebble. She gets passed on from situation to situation (such as being in a birds nest and dropped in a pond) and through it all she is cheerful and takes the situation she is in and loves it.
At the end of the story she is picked up by a child who paints her and turns her into her craft project which is a rock elephant. Ever happy Petra embraces this as well and mentions that she can’t wait to see what happens next. The illustrations in this book are charming as well. I love the use of empty space and the minimalistic approach. Plus, the color palette is dreamy.
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As mentioned above, at the end of the story a child paints petra into a “rock elephant”. I thought that it would be so much fun to join this fictional character and try the same craft out ourselves. We grabbed some rocks and got to work painting.
The turtle rock was painted to look like a turtle and the other two were done by small toddlers. I just let them paint however they wanted and then after they dried we talked about what kind of animal we could make it. Using a sharpie we drew on details to make them look like the animals chosen. All in all I was pleased with the results. They are a bit abstract and perfectly imperfect. My little artists were thrilled. The one on the left is a turtle, the one in the middle is a whale and the one on the right is a fish.
It is such a simple and quick craft, yet it is so much fun. One of my favorite parts is that all it takes is rocks and paint! (And a black marker if desired.) We hope you enjoy it is much as we did. If you give this Beyond the Book activity a try I’d love to hear how it goes! Share it on Instagram and tag me! (I’m on Instagram as @book.nerd.mommy) or even just comment here with your thoughts. It would make my day! Or to simply save for later pin the image below.
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