El libro de las rocas y los minerales: ... y otros tesoros del mundo natural

by D.K. Publishing

Una enciclopedia visual esencial para conocer el impresionante mundo de los minerales, las gemas, las rocas y los fósiles de nuestro planeta Más de 1.000 impresionantes fotografías muestran con gran detalle las maravillas naturales de la Tierra. Las propiedades únicas de los minerales se describen detalladamente, junto con sus usos en el arte, la industria, la arquitectura y la ciencia. Un viaje geológico extraordinario para descubrir las rocas arcoíris, los minerales fluorescentes, los diamantes de valor incalculable y las lluvias de meteoritos. Conoce a los dinosaurios para comprender cómo se forman los fósiles, investiga cómo los constructores de las pirámides del Antiguo Egipto utilizaban la piedra caliza y sumérgete en el océano en busca de almejas o caracoles. Rocas, minerales, gemas y fósiles, un planeta lleno de maravillas naturales

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Nature, Childrens, Reference, Geology

192 pages, Hardcover

First published May 10, 2016

About the author

Dorling Kindersley (DK) is a British multinational publishing company specializing in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 62 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House, a consumer publishing company jointly owned by Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA and Pearson PLC. Bertelsmann owns 53% of the company and Pearson owns 47%.

Established in 1974, DK publishes a range of titles in genres including travel (including Eyewitness Travel Guides), arts and crafts, business, history, cooking, gaming, gardening, health and fitness, natural history, parenting, science and reference. They also publish books for children, toddlers and babies, covering such topics as history, the human body, animals and activities, as well as licensed properties such as LEGO, Disney and DeLiSo, licensor of the toy Sophie la Girafe. DK has offices in New York, London, Munich, New Delhi, Toronto and Melbourne.

Source: Wikipedia.

Reviews

[MK · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains many natural stones and gems that you have never seen before.
All of them are so beautiful that it's hard to believe they were created by nature.

Personally, I'm drawn to Amethyst's noble lavender color.
When I look at beautiful natural stones, I feel a connection with the universe.

I would like to see the candy-colored rocky mountains called "RAINBOW MOUNTAINS" in China.

RAINBOW MOUNTAINS
These candy-striped mountains may look like an optical illusion, but they actually consist of sandstone rock, built up by layer after layer of blue-gray, magenta, maroon, and lemon-colored stone. One of the most beautiful landforms in China, they form part of the Zhangye Danxia Geological Park in Gansu Province, in the northwest of the country.

The second half of this book also includes information on shell types.
The shells are heart-shaped, pink, and have gradations.

It's amazing how such beautiful works can be created in the ocean!

[Donal · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those of us who are new to petrology, this is actually a really good reference on the different types of rock & mineral with a fantastic range of images.

The introductory geology section is rather primary-school rudimentary, which almost put me off, but the main reference section on the different rocks & minerals is superb. I'm sure those with geology or petrology training would scoff, but I found it helpful is further understanding the geology and specifically identifying many the rocks on my local coast and went in a couple of days from having almost no knowledge to being able to identify many of the local coastal rocks.

[Kelsey Righter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fantastic!!! I plan to buy our own as I can only hoard our library copy for so long.

Science, history, art, geography and culture... all melded so well into this one fascinating topic. Rocks and stones? Who knew. It's a beautiful yet functional book with so much information and so much to look at. Not one to miss for a child's home bookshelf.

[Rachel Crowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book that talks about different rocks throughout the world! It would get kids involved in looking and researching rocks.

[Danielle]

We read every word on every page. Every single word!

[jacky · Rating 5 out of 5]

We read it for the photographs. I spent most of the book reading the names of things to the kids and listening to them pick their favorites on each page.

[Pop Bop · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deeply Weird, but Sort of Fun

Look closely at this book's subtitle, (at least in the U.S. edition): "A Visual Encyclopedia of the Earth's Treasures". Two important points here - first, there is not a lot of text; second, the authors take a loopy and indiosyncratic shot at what constitutes a treasure.

We start with 40 pages of rocks and their various classifications, and that is quite good and generally up to date and informative. Then we move on to minerals. The pictures are gorgeous, although the descriptions of the minerals are very dense and technical. Of most interest are observations about the uses to which the minerals are usually put. From minerals we drift into the topic of gems, and the distinction between "raw" and cut gems is made starkly clear.

But then, without much of a hint about this from the title or the cover, we move into the world of fossils. This might be the best part of the book since the photos are excellent, the information is current, and the captioning gets a bit more chatty, upbeat, and interesting. For a young reader I sometimes suspect that all mineral photos, apart from being colorful and sort of neat, begin to blend together after a few pages. But with fossils you get worlds and worlds of cool stuff. Don't know why they aren't mentioned in the title or more featured on the cover.

Anyway, from there, though, we move on to a lengthy section on "shells", and we get pages and pages of cowries, clams and chitons, which I have always felt could be summed up on a one page pamphlet titled "shells". No matter, though, because once the shells begin to pale we end with "treasures". It's over a dozen pages of random treasures - a Viking silver hoard in England, a famous pearl, a royal Chinese jade burial suit, and so on.

So, this is really half a dozen different picture books in one, organized loosely around the theme of cool stuff you usually find on the ground. I'm actually O.K. with that and enjoyed the book, (although it could have used a bit less "shell" and a bit more fossil), but so as not to be disappointed it seems best for one to think of this as a coffee table picture book for browsing. On that scale it scores well. (Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book in exchange for a candid review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

[Ietrio · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is not much science in this volume, but it is a pleasure to look at the colorful pictures.

[Marmot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kids loved this book we got from the library. Want to get a copy as it would be a great one to have around.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful book, sometimes low on information and sometimes oddly specific. It's like wandering through a cabinet of curiosities. (Besides rocks and gems it also has fossils, shells, and famous treasures.)