I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was an interesting tale explaining why you shouldn't let anger get the best of you and respond with violence. It was an okay read. The pictures were bright and engaging.

Good book teaches that violence is not the solution for solving problems. Also has a small story within.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the eARC

I really enjoyed the concept behind The Flying Rock. "You are responsible for each of your actions, and your actions a(ff)ect other people.” There were some formatting issues with my review copy, so some of the letters were missing, but it wasn't too difficult to figure out what they were.

The little boy in this book responds to taunts and teasing with violence. He gets scared and runs home where his grandfather scolds him and also tells him a story. The story was okay, but didn't flow well. It felt choppy and all over the place, but the message was solid.

Every action has a consequence, but we don't always know what that consequence will be. It has the potential to be both good and bad. In the moment, we may see the action as something horrible and devastating, but it could actually lead to something better. It doesn't help to dwell on what might happen, but focus on what's going on in the present. That's the only thing you can control.

It also mentions that just because a mistake has a positive outcome, it doesn't make that mistake okay. You still have to take responsibility for what you've done, but be thankful that it didn't do any lasting harm.

Again, I liked the message, but I feel like it was poorly executed. I had to struggle through some parts, and that doesn't bode well for a children's book.

This story about a little boy who throws a rock at another boy teaches that problems should not be solved with violence and that there are consequences to our actions. It was a nice story. However, the digital copy I read had many grammatical errors. I am not sure if it was due to bad formatting or what, but it made it hard to follow some parts. Additionally, I wasn't very impressed by the author's writing.

It was okay, but definitely only a one time read for us.

A beautifully illustrated and told tale of triumph against adversity. One that I shan't forget soon.

Kid getting picked on loses it and throws a rock at the bullies, only to find he’s got more of a pitcher’s arm than he suspected, plonking one of them on the head. He runs home to tell his grandpa what he did, and gramps sits him down for a lecture and a story. That story is about how you never know if luck is good or bad until the full circumstances play out, which I had heard before as an ancient Chinese parable.
The moral of the story the grandfather gave didn’t seem to fit, but the end of the framing section did bring it together. Won’t spoiler it, but let’s just say the medical stuff might be too much for small kids to handle. Other than that, it was a good story well told.
3.5 pushed up to 4/5

The Flying Rock is a bizarre little story. As I was reading it, I had the same feeling I get when I stumble across an unfamiliar-to-me story in a collection of fairy tales or fables. Let's face it, the famous fables have pretty straight-forward morals and some good story telling -- they get retold for a reason. The ones that are unfamiliar tend to be murkier, with messages that are easily misunderstood or that leave you scratching your head trying to understand why they were told in the first place.

This book is actually a story within a story, and for me, the two stories just did not mesh. The moral does not seem apt for both stories, so it seems like a real stretch that these are combined. Separately, each story has the potential to be really strong. Combining them results in an over-long picture book with each story losing a bit of its magic.

The book opens with a little boy, Timmy, terribly upset because he has overreacted by throwing a rock at some kids who were teasing him. The rock hit one of the other kids, Billy, and has hurt him badly enough that he had to be taken to the hospital. So, yeah, Timmy probably should feel pretty crappy at that point. But since there is nothing Timmy can do until Billy returns from the hospital, his grandfather tries to console him by telling him a story.

Grandpa's story turns out to be a fable about a farmer from once upon a time when farming was done with horses, men and boys wore suspenders, and women and girls wore dresses with pinafores. The farmer has a son who has a knack of doing things he's not supposed to do and creating havoc as a result. Each time the son causes something bad to happen, it turns out the problem is only temporary and always ends up being a surprisingly good thing.

For example, the boy decides to try to ride the horse the farmer uses for plowing (even though he's not supposed to), and during his attempt, he accidentally lets the horse escape. This means the family will have to plow the fields by hand, will not be able to plant as much, purchased seed will go to waste, and the family will have barely enough to eat all winter. But just a couple of days later, the horse returns bringing with him a herd of other horses, so now the farmer can sell the extra horses and still have his plow horse to help him plant the original number of crops.

With each turn of events, the farmer's neighbour comes along to either rub the farmer's nose in the problem or show a bit of envy at the farmer's good luck. The farmer always maintains an steady attitude and replies with something like "Who can really know if that's good or bad? We'll just have to see." This happens a few times, always with a seemingly bad thing turning out to have a silver lining.

We return to the main story only to discover that Billy (who we had last seen at the hospital after being bonked on the head with a sizable rock) has had a CAT scan to make sure the rock didn't leave him with a serious injury. Well, it turns out that the CAT scan revealed a super dangerous tumour! Billy has an operation to remove it, though, and he's going to make a full recovery. So, you see, it was fortuitous that Timmy threw that rock with enough aim and heft to give Billy a real goose egg! You just never know what's good or bad. *sigh*

I do really like the different styles of art used for each of the stories. The thumbprint illustrations for Timmy's story are really unique, and the watercolour illustrations for the fable portion are just lovely and really suit that kind of story. Ruth Whiting did a wonderful job of creating a really unique styles for each of the stories.

I also really liked that small details were addressed instead of being smoothed over the way they often are in picture books. For example, Grandpa asks Billy some questions about what happened before calling Timmy's family to see if Timmy is ok, and the farmer is careful to check the herd of horses to make sure they don't belong to someone else.

Unfortunately, though, my overall perception of this book was that of a very dated picture book: names like Billy and Timmy don't seem contemporary, some of the dialogue is a bit stiff, and an excess of white space on each page creates a lack of grounding for the images and text. The biggest problem for me, though, was simply that the story was overly long, resulting in too much text on each page.

I really wish these stories were separate, with Timmy's story being strengthened with a better moral -- something about taking responsibility for your actions or maybe learning how to control your temper. In this book's current form, I struggle to think of someone to whom I could recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Prior Manor Press for providing me with a free electronic ARC of this book.

This would have been a much shorter book if we hadn't had the retelling of a fable in the middle of it.

The whole point of this story, which the grandfather tells, is that consequences have meaning, but, that actions sometimes seem bad at the time, work out for the best. At the time, neither Billy or his grandfather know how Timmy is, after he got hit by Billy with a rock. They don't know if it is a good thing or a bad thing. I mean, yes, it was a bad thing that Billy got angry, but we don't know why, until the end of the book, that the story the grandfather tells about how bad luck can turn to good luck in the blink of an eye, has anything to do with Billy and the rock.

<img src="http://www.reyes-sinclair.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Screen-Shot-2018-06-24-at-12.19.00-AM.png" alt="The flying rock" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-668" />

It does however. Because of the visit to the hospital, a brain tumor is found, and fixed, and although Billy shouldn't throw rocks, he proably saved Timmy's life.

The point of the story is...don't throw rocks at your friends, even if you think they have a brain tumor.

Nah, the point of the story is that you should get along with your friends.

But, sometimes bad things turn out well.

Yeah, it is a little muddied, which is why it only gets three stars.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

Loved this short story, a young boy learns that actions do have consequences and sometimes we do things without bad intentions and there's nothing much we can do once we've vented out.
The artwork is great and I found the accents also new to me...don't know if it was meant to be so, or it was a typo but for some reason the word 'find' was only 'nd.' Thanks NetGalley for the eARC.

A story of a young boy learning that all of our actions have consequences - for better or for worse. Rush's story will resonate with adults who read Aesop's fables.

Timmy throws a rock at another child and hits him on the head, resulting in a hospital visit. Distraught, he turns to his grandpa who tells him the tale of a boy who acts without thinking but his actions ultimately have a positive outcome - although you can never be sure that'll be the case.

This book would be perfect for young children who are starting to understand boundaries, actions, and consequences. It is a tale with a moral but has been carefully crafted not to cause anxiety or distress.

Rush uses short sentences and accessible language, suitable for younger children to be read with an adult or older children looking to read independently. The tense changes somewhat clumsily at times but it is otherwise a solid first children's book from Robert Rush.

Four stars.

Wow, this book has a great message. At the beginning the reader learns that Billy had hit Timmy in the head with a rock. He did this because he was being treated badly by Timmy and his friends. Billy tells his Grandfather and Timmy goes to the hospital with his family. Billy's grandfather tells him a story he hopes will teach Billy how do deal with the present moment and of course not throw stones at people. I enjoyed how the father in the story looked at each situation as possibly good or bad. His reply to his neighbor was "who really knows what's good or bad?" When something "bad" happens we often get depressed, sad, angry, or have many other negative feelings. However, at times, these "bad" things turn out to be good things. The book gives good examples of bad turning out good and good turning out bad.