Sticks and Stones
Cassie Brooks
North Street Book Prize 2025 (view all the winners)
Honorable Mention, Children's Picture Book
Critique by Jendi Reiter
Good picture books about spiritual traditions other than Christianity and Judaism are hard to find on bookshelves, and even rarer in our contest. Full disclosure, as a pagan, I was predisposed to have a soft spot for Sticks and Stones, written by Cassie Brooks with illustrations by Vaishnavi Dukhande. At the same time, because I'm personally invested in accurate representation here, I held the book to a high standard.
First-round judge Annie Mydla noted something that also delighted me about the illustrations: "It's so refreshing to see a larger woman with blue hair and tattoos in a children's book, finally! The visual style is professional, colorful, and joyful."
The rounded, bright, cozy images immediately draw you into the characters' world. When the story opens, little Elijah is sad because other kids say he's "too much". He's loud and physically expressive, and his special interest in collecting rocks and sticks seems weird to them. Neurodivergent feels! To show him that he's not alone, his mom invites him into her home office and explains her intuitive connection with the crystals and wooden wand that she uses as a Wiccan.
There are lots of "witches" in mainstream picture books, but they invariably have pointy hats and broomsticks, and are either villains or fantasy characters. Understandably, Elijah is confused because his mom doesn't fit the stereotype. She accurately describes the modern Wiccan paradigm that "witches are healers and teachers…storytellers and keepers of knowledge. They care about nature and help take care of the earth." The accompanying picture is a montage of friendly-looking, ethnically- and gender-diverse families. What a difference it makes to learn that a witch is something you can grow up to be, in the real world!
This book remained at Honorable Mention level because the text was more telling than showing. It was essentially an illustrated conversation about the topic, rather than a true dramatization, and as such, it might not be as exciting for a kid to read. In terms of formatting, the text alignment was inconsistent, sometimes left-justified and other times centered. Variation is fine if necessary for integration with the pictures, but that didn't seem to be the case here. The large text blocks could have benefited from some blank lines between sentences for ease of reading. The names of the author and illustrator had kerning issues on the front cover.
Despite these details, this is a groundbreaking book that I would recommend, not only to other parents in the pagan community, but to all families who feel a spiritual connection to nature.
Read an excerpt from Sticks and Stones (PDF)
Buy this book on Amazon.
