About This Site (FAQ)
What even IS this website?
The idea for this website came from a book!* That book is the middle grade novel Geo’s Fortune, and it was written by me, the author, Amy B. Mucha. Geo’s Fortune is filled with rocks and magic, and writing it not only made me remember how much I loved rocks as a kid, it made me fall in love with them all over again.
In the book, as in real life, you’ll find two different kinds of rock lovers. There are those who love rocks from a scientific point of view (the rockhounds, like Lana), and those who love rocks for their magical potential (the crystal lovers, like Feather).
In the book, Lana and Feather become fast friends right away. In reality, these two groups often don’t see eye to eye. The more I learned about the tension between them, the more I longed for a space that would appeal equally to both, where rockhounds and crystal lovers could come together to learn factual, scientific information AND have fun with magic too.
Since no such space existed, I decided to make it myself!
Because I’m smart, the very first thing I did was join forces with a genuine, lifelong, seriously-knows-his-stuff rockhound. I couldn’t have found a more perfect and delightful partner, and I’m proud to say that, working together, we met our goals and then some!
And then, because in addition to science and magic I also have enormous respect for artists, I hired a bunch of actual, real live human artists and expanded our mission statement to include them as well. Therefore, here at The Rock Readers:
- We celebrate science!
- We celebrate magic!
- We celebrate art!
- AND we have a By humans, for humans: 100% AI-Free Guarantee.
That last one was added because I absolutely do NOT celebrate artificial intelligence. I’m sure it’s not all bad, there’s a place for it, blah blah blah. But the fact that AI actively steals from human artists and writers, threatening their livelihoods while filling the Web with an endless sludge of hideous “art” and bland writing? And that it does this while spewing false “facts” and fabrications in a voice of total authority and confidence? BLECH.
This is why I pledge that everything on The Rock Readers was created by real artists, real writers, real rockhounds, and real developers and designers, all of whom were paid for their work. All photographs were sourced in one of three ways: 1. we took them ourselves, 2. we got permission from friends to use their photos and gave them credit, 3. we sourced them from Wikimedia Commons and provided the required Creative Commons credit.
It’s my hope that I’ve succeeded in making something fun and wholesome that can be enjoyed by science-leaning rockhounds and magic-leaning crystal lovers in equal measure, all while supporting the art community and taking a stand against AI.
In short, I got an apatite to make something gneiss, and if I rocked it, you can chalk up my success to my fabulous team. (Who, let it be known, bear no responsibility for these horrible puns. And if you can’t stand to hear another one? Tuff schist!)
*If you’re wondering where the idea for the book came from, that story is here.
Okay, but why rocks?
Short answer: Rocks are cool!
Long answer: Okay, so I mean REALLY long. Like 13.8 billion years long, so buckle in.
Like many good stories, this one starts with a bang, the Big Bang, to be precise.
But what IS the Big Bang? Where did it come from? Why did it happen? No one knows! Seriously, we just can’t explain it. All we know for sure is that first there was nothing, then, like magic, there was something.
Nothing → something. BOOM.
Anyway, that Bang kept Banging for the next few hundred thousand years, give or take, until the energy expanded outward enough that it began to cool off at the edges. And that’s when the next interesting thing happened. The cooling energy began to clump, and eventually it clumped enough to form something completely new and fantastical: matter.
At first it was just teensy-tiny little bits of matter, and for some reason these teensy-tiny little bits of matter seemed to be inexplicably drawn toward each other. Why? Again, we’re not completely sure! (Scientists are pretty solid on the
These teeny-tiny little bits of matter liked hanging out together so much, soon they started to click together like teensy-tiny little puzzle pieces. But when they clicked, it didn’t make a teensy-tiny reaction. Not only did they make entirely new, heavier kinds of matter, they created some insanely huge BOOMs.
Nuclear booms, to be precise. We call it nuclear fusion. And if you add enough of these nuclear booms together, what do you get?
Stars. Seriously. Stars!
But the universe was far from finished because those first stars were just babies, and, as we all know, babies get older. As a star gets older, more fusion happens, creating even heavier elements. That makes the star heavier too, until eventually it gets so old and so heavy the poor old star collapses in on itself.
Yup, it dies.
The thing about a star is that it doesn’t die quietly. To say stars die with a bang would be a massive, ridiculous understatement. When the very biggest die, they collapse together so hard it creates the biggest known boom in the entire universe: a supernova. And that (well, mostly that) is what created a whole bunch of new, very cool elements like silver, platinum, and gold.
And, also, lots and lots of extremely cool rocks.
And, incidentally and eventually, us.
Which means, if you think about it, no stars = no rocks = no Earth = no us. So from now on, you can start thinking of your family history this way:
The big bang → energy → atoms → fusion → stars → rocks → Earth → us
Back to the original question: Why rocks? Because we’re family. Since, technically, it was the Earth who made us* and the Earth itself is a big rock, you could even say we’re all children of rocks. Sometimes I imagine that rocks see us as their magical, freaky, squishy little children who walk around on them, pick them up, name them, study them, collect them, and make stuff with them. And when you think of it that way, why wouldn’t rocks take an interest in us?
I’ve long suspected they do. I suspect they’ve been sending us messages since forever, and that most of us just haven’t learned how to hear them. But that means some of us have. And it means you can too.
I think, if you give them a chance, you’ll find they have plenty to say.
*We don’t know how she made us, but she did. We know, because, well, here we are. Incidentally, other things science can’t explain include dark matter, dark energy, consciousness, why we dream, why we yawn, exactly how a cat purrs, how a butterfly could possibly know how to fly thousands of miles back to a place where they’ve never been, and so, so, SO much more.
What’s up with referring to minerals as rocks? Don’t you know the difference?
Yes, we do often call minerals “rocks” on this site, and yes, we do know the difference! Carl explains it best on the Rock Science page, so I’ll just quote him here:
…most people who collect minerals, rocks, or both just lump everything together and call them all “rocks” when they’re talking about them. It’s a lot easier than always spelling out “rocks and minerals,” “rocks” is shorter than “minerals” and has a very satisfying “rocky” sound to it, and it’s less formal. So on this site, if we talk about rocks when we’ve just been describing a mineral, it’s not because we forgot it’s a mineral, we’re just doing what comes naturally for most people who love…rocks (and/or minerals).
Is this website meant for kids?
This website was designed for a general audience, not just kids. That said, it was created by a children’s book author who’s all about old-fashioned values and wholesome advice, so there shouldn’t be anything upsetting or inappropriate for the twelve and under set…with several important caveats:
- A few of the rock cards included in the “Give It to Me Straight” section of the Full Reading might be a bit scary for young or sensitive readers. To get a kid-safe reading, simply select “Positive Cards Only,” or try the Kids’ Reading.
- Because this website was not written “down” to kids, some are bound to struggle with the reading level and find the material over their heads. I strongly suspect, however, that fans of Geo’s Fortune (who are, after all, smarter than average!) will be able to follow along just fine, even if they find it somewhat challenging at times.
- Some of the songs (coming soon to the Full Readings) linked to from the inspiration section of the rock card pages contain expletives in their lyrics. I avoided songs filled with harsh language (I tend to not like those songs myself), but a few swear words definitely slipped in. I also didn’t watch every music video all the way through, so definitely be aware of that before letting children click over to the YouTube page for any of the songs.
- Some material on this site, including most of the poems and books recommended in the inspiration section of the magic cards, is going to be mainly of interest to adults. It’s not that it contains anything explicit or harmful to kids, it’s just that most kids will find it pretty dull and not relevant to their lives.
Why is this free?
This website is not a financial endeavor, it’s a passion project. Not only is it 100% free to use and explore, but we’re dead set against ever having any annoying ads or pop-ups, and we’ll never require registration or sign-ins, either. This is, and will remain, free, easy to use, and open to all.
That said, if you wish to support the work being done here, there’s definitely something you can do! For one thing, spread the word. It does no good for this site to exist if no one ever finds it.
Also, please purchase a copy of Geo’s Fortune, the novel that inspired this site! If you don’t have money for a book, no problem at all; in that case, you can check to see if it’s at your local public library, and if it isn’t, request it. That helps authors just as much as buying the book yourself.
If you’re here because you already read Geo’s Fortune, thank you!! I love when readers find their way to this site. In that case, the very nicest thing you could do is leave it a review on Amazon, Goodreads, and Barnes & Noble. Reviews mean everything to authors!
If you do any of the above, THANK YOU!!!
Who designed this website?
Website Development
This entire website, from the extremely cool animated Rock Readings to the ever-expanding rock card pages to, well, basically all of it, exists because of website developer DriftChamber (www.driftchamber.com). It’s no exaggeration to say that without DriftChamber, The Rock Readers wouldn’t exist!
Website Design
Melissa Cornwell (www.melcornwell.com), a recent graduate of Savannah College of Art and Design, didn’t just create all the headers, backgrounds, card backs, icons, and other design elements on this site, she was our primary advisor on everything from color palette to page templates, menu options, page organization, and more. Basically, if it looks good, thank Melissa. We feel incredibly lucky that she was available!
NOTE: Some rendered assets were provided by Poly By Google. Most were created by Quaternius.
Last but not least, the landing page art was created by the ridiculously talented JC Molanda of JC Arte. Read more about him on our Meet the Artists page!
What resources & references were used in researching the rocks on this site?
A lot of what’s on this site came out of the heads of the authors, Amy and Carl. References Carl used in the science section have all been noted and linked within the text itself and on the Learn More page. For the magic section, the following books and websites were the go-to sources Amy used to help her discern the meaning of each rock. Though, really, she mainly just asked the rocks themselves, and listened to what they told her!
Websites
- Geology.com
- Minerals.net (NOTE: This website now appears to be defunct, which is a shame because it used to be full of good info.)
- Mindat.org
- Mineralogy4Kids
- Wikipedia
Books
- Rocks and Minerals: A Gem of a Book by Simon Basher and Dan Green
- Rock and Gem: The Definitive Guide to Rocks, Minerals, Gemstones, and Fossils by Ronald Bonewitz
- My Book of Rocks and Minerals: Things to Find, Collect, and Treasure by Devin Dennie
- Rocks and Minerals by DK (Smithsonian)
- Scholastic Discover More: Rocks and Minerals by Dan Green
Is this site finished, or will more be added?
I’m not sure this website will ever be truly finished! From rocks to readings to quizzes and more, we’ve got a looong list of things we plan to add. I’m SUPER excited, for example, to be working on a deck of Mineral Trading Cards, which should arrive sometime in spring 2026. Science-based with loads of facts and real (not AI) art, it’s exactly what I would have adored having as a nerdy rock-loving kid, and I can’t wait to be able to offer it to nerdy rock-loving kids of today!
If there’s something YOU would like to see added or offered, let us know!