As a child, did you like to dig up rocks in the backyard? Then you can relate to Julie the Rockhound by Gail Langer Karwoski and illustrated by Lisa Downey. When Julie moves to a new house and finds a piece of quartz crystal buried in the backyard, she turns into “Julie the Rockhound.” Soon her dad dad shows her how to dig for rocks and explains how crystals are formed.

Like other Syvlan Dell Publishing books, Julie the Rockhound comes with a “For Creative Minds” section. (Click here for a PDF version.) Your child will explore if items are plants, animals or minerals. They’ll learn what they need to become a rockhound, how rocks are formed, and how to classify minerals.

The “Food Rocks!” section shows how you can use cooking to understand how rocks are formed. The recipe they give for sedimentary rocks is making a sandwich. The layers of margarine, cheese, bread and meat represent layers of sedimentary rock. Great idea! But why just make a regular sandwich, when you can make a Quadruple-Decker Honolulu Hightower courtesy of the Denver Post and Tucker Shaw.

Quadruple-Decker Honolulu Hightower
Photo by Glenn Asakaw of the Denver Post

If macadamia butter and papaya jam is too weird for your child, try good old peanut butter and grape jelly along with the bananas, and substitute granola for the shredded coconut. You could also experiment with low-fat cream cheese, strawberry preserves, sliced strawberries, and crunchy cereal. A savory idea would be hummus, grated carrots and pepper strips and some baked potato chips for the crunch. Or try cashew butter, apple butter and thin apple slices along with granola, cereal or shredded rice cakes.

Your child could help cut out the bread (try wheat too), spreading the nut butters and jams, and stacking the layers.

Ingredients

1. Five slices white bread, cut into rounds with a cookie cutter (Make sure your slices will fit into a round plastic container as shown here. This sandwich is way too high for plastic wrap or a baggie.)
2. Macadamia butter
3. Papaya jam
4. Pineapple jam
5. A few slices dried banana
6. A few flakes dried coconut (unsweetened)

Directions

1. Spread two rounds bread with macadamia butter. Spread one round with papaya jam. Spread one round with pineapple preserves. Layer banana slices and dried coconut on final round.
2. Stack rounds, starting and finishing with macadamia-butter rounds. Put into container.

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