Rock On, Kindness! Pass It On!

Rock On, Kindness! Pass It On! is about a 7-year-old girl named Ally whose favorite hobby is painting and hiding rocks to bring happiness to others.In the story, Ally creates opportunities for the reader to make predictions and learn new vocabulary as she introduces the reader to her five best friends who will be receiving her painted rocks. The five best friends include Ty, Katie, Noah, Latifa, and Max. Ally explains how she met every friend and notes their uniqueness as these friends differ in terms of race, physical appearance, preferred language, religion, etc. Despite these differences, Ally finds similarities between herself and every friend introduced.The theme of moving past differences to find common interests and create friendships is reiterated throughout the story. While thinking of ways to promote and teach kindness to her two young children, author Stepheni Curran happened to find a painted rock at a local park. This rock was painted by a member of the Fox Valley Hidden Rocks group. Out of curiosity, Stepheni joined the Facebook group to learn more about these painted rocks and their purpose. Since joining the group in June of 2017, Stepheni and her children have found over 100 painted rocks designed by members of the Fox Valley Hidden Rocks group and other rock painting groups in Wisconsin. These rocks were hidden in community locations, such as in the story’s featured park called O’Hauser Park. The Fox Valley Hidden Rocks group currently has 12,500 members who primarily live in or near the Fox Cities. This act of painting rocks and hiding them for others to find is an inexpensive and simple way to promote kindness, creativity, family bonding, and exercise. Stepheni saw the impact that this fun pastime had on her family as they began going on weekly rock hunts to local parks. The collected rocks were shared on the Facebook page for the Fox Valley Hidden Rocks group and then either added to the family’s “rock vase” or given to someone to brighten their day. The Fox Valley Hidden Rocks group helped inspire Stepheni Curran to write a children’s book. With a professional background as a pediatric speech-language pathologist, Stepheni incorporated characters into her book to promote the concepts of differences, uniqueness, and similarities. Her hope is to reduce the stigmas found in society related to race, religion, birth defects, etc., by writing about the children that have enriched her personal and professional life.