It’s always a good day to teach your students about environmental awareness, not just Earth Day. There are SO MANY great books out there to teach your students about conservation and protecting our planet. When I first started teaching, it seemed like every teacher knew really good books to read for every holiday, while I was left asking around everywhere. After years of talking to librarians, teachers and kids, here are my favorite read alouds for Earth Day!
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Outside In by Deborah Underwood
The outside is always there but even when we’re outside, we’re still inside. So the outside reminds us that it’s still there. It calls us, beckons us to come outside. This story reads as a poem, and the illustrations pair beautifully.
Get the lesson plan and activities for Outside In HERE
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ZONIA’S RAIN FOREST BY JUANA MARTÍNEZ-NEAL
This is the newest book on the list, and it immediately went straight to the top! The author Juana Martinez-Neal’s pedigree speaks for itself: Caldecott Honor, Pura Belpre Medal, Sibert Medal. With this book, though, she could finally claim the Caldecott Medal. Just looking at the cover you can see her unique style, but also note the handmade paper used to create the illustrations was with banana bark pulp.
Zonia is an Asháninka girl who lives with her family in the rainforest of Peru. Each morning, the forest calls her and teaches her. She greets each animal family she meets and takes the time to learn from them. This book reminds me of the books Encounter by Jane Yolen and We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom in that it focuses on Indigenous people and how the outside world affects them. So often, rainforest books focus on the impact of humans on wildlife and vegetation but forget about the native people who have lived in the rainforest for generations. This book is not sad, though. It’s bright and upbeat, inspiring children to stand up for their communities.
ASTOUNDING DETAILS AND EASTER EGGS
What I love about Martinez-Neal is how intentional she is with almost every detail in her story. As mentioned previously, the illustrations were done on paper handmade from materials from the rainforest. The name of the protagonist Zonia is also a nod to the Spanish name for the Amazon rainforest “AmaZONIA.” A detail that many non-bilingual folks may not notice. The back material explains that Zonia was part of the Asháninka people of Peru and provides information about them as well as a translation of the book into the Asháninka language. It also explains the name of each animal Zonia encountered during her day in the rainforest.
This is a must-have book to add to any elementary school library and certainly for every primary grade classroom library. Whether you study the rainforest or are looking for a book to study for Earth Day, this book is a must-read. Even more so because this book is also available in Spanish titled La selva de Zonia.
Get the lesson plan and activities for Zonia’s Rain Forest HERE
To Change a Planet by Christina Soontornvat
Spare, poetic text and breathtaking pictures invite readers on a stirring journey that gently illuminates the causes of climate change as well as how our individual and collective actions can make the world better.
With calm, truthfulness, and beauty, To Change a Planet demonstrates the importance of caring for our planet. Eye popping explosions of color on every page create a stunning visual narrative that invites readers to find and follow the same characters through their daily lives and ultimately to a climate march on Washington, where their storylines converge.
The Boy Who Grew a Forest by Sophia Gholz
This is the true story of a boy named Jadav Payeng who single-handedly grew a forest to protect his island home and eventually create a habitat for animals who had not lived in the area in years. Jadav saw how erosion was destroying his island, so he asked the elders of his village for trees to plant. They gave him 20 bamboo shoots. This started his life of reforesting his island.
I love this story because it shows how one person can make a big difference if you try. It started small with 20 bamboo shoots, but he cared for them. That’s the important part: he cared.
Get my lesson plan and activities HERE
One Little Bag: An Amazing Journey by Henry Cole
From a tall tree growing in the forest–to the checkout counter at the grocery store–one little bag finds its way into the hands of a young boy on the eve of his first day of school. And so begins an incredible journey of one little bag that is usedand reused and reused again.
In a three-generation family, the bag is transporter of objects and keeper of memories. And when Grandfather comes to the end of his life, the family finds a meaningful new way for the battered, but much-loved little bag to continue its journey in the circle of life. In addition to being a favorite Earth Day book for elementary, it’s also one of the best wordless picture books.
Get the lesson plan and activities for One Little Bag HERE
The Camping Trip That Changed America by Barb Rosenstock
An entertaining mostly true story about President Theodore Roosevelt and naturalist John Muir. Roosevelt read a book by Muir about needing to protect the American forests. Muir invited Roosevelt to go camping in the Yosemite Valley that was in danger of being developed. The two share some adventures and Roosevelt sees that Muir is quite right that America’s natural places need to be protected.
This camping trip eventually led to the creation of national parks. Mordicai Gerstein’s playful, yet informative illustrations really help the readers imagine what the camping trip may have been like. A great book for looking at character traits and cause and effect.
Get my lesson plan and activities for The Camping Trip that Changed America HERE
Energy Island and Green City by Allan Drummond
Both of these books by Allan Drummond are AMAZING for talking about renewable vs. nonrenewable energy. Energyy Island talks about how one person making a small change can start a domino effect that eventually leads to BIG change. An entire island now uses ONLY renewable energy! Green City, on the other hand, shows how one community took a tragedy and turned it into an opportunity to transform their community to use renewable energy.
The best part, these books both tell true stories, one from Denmark, one from the USA. This allows students a lot of opportunity for digging deeper and investigating further. Drummond’s writing style and illustrations also include details that make it accessible for primary grades (I read this to first graders) with opportunities to dig deeper into the story for upper elementary.
Get my lesson plan and activities for Energy Island HERE
Ge my lesson plan and activities for Green City HERE
You Are Home by Evan Turk
This book had some Caldecott Award buzz about it. This is a poem written about the national parks. Each spread features a different park, and was drawn in that park by the author-illustrator Evan Turk. What truly draws one to this book is the emotion produced by the verse when mixed with the illustration on each page.
This book is an excellent way to incorporate poetry and also introduce students to the many beautiful parks of our country.
Get my lesson plan and activities for You Are Home HERE
Get my Google Classroom distance learning activities for You Are Home
We Are Water Protectors
Water is the first medicine.
It affects and connects us all . . .
When a black snake threatens to destroy the Earth and poison her people’s water, one young water protector takes a stand to defend Earth’s most sacred resource. Inspired by the many Indigenous-led movements across North America, We Are Water Protectors issues an urgent rallying cry to safeguard the Earth’s water from harm and corruption―a bold and lyrical picture book written by Carole Lindstrom and vibrantly illustrated by Michaela Goade.
Get the lesson plan and activities for We Are Water Protectors HERE
Grand Canyon by Jason Chin
This is the first book by Jason Chin that I read, and it won’t be the last as he also has books about gravity, the Galapagos Islands, and water. This book walks students from the deepest part of the inner gorge of the Grand Canyon up to the North Rim and South Rim while examining both the readily visible rock layers as well as the ecosystems found throughout the canyon. Chin’s pages are absolutely brimming with information that upper elementary students will love.
Get my lesson plan and activities HERE
Ada’s Violin by Susan Hood
This tells the amazing true story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay. Ada lives in a community that is right next to a landfill. People in her community spend their days picking through the refuse looking for things to sell. One day, a teacher comes and decides to start an orchestra. He has few instruments, and the instruments that he does have are worth more than most families own. So, the people in the community use some of their landfill finds to make their own instruments using paint cans and freight boxes among other things.
Playing the homemade instruments was difficult but with practice, they became quite famous eventually touring the world and playing with famous bands like Metallica. This story shows how one person’s trash is another’s treasure.
Even better? This book is also in Spanish as El violin de Ada for all of you bilingual teachers out there 🙂
Get my lesson plan and activities HERE
Manfish: A Story of Jacques Cousteau by Jennifer Berne
This tells the story of famous oceanographer and filmmaker Jacques Cousteau. This book follows his life as a child wanting to explore the sea all the way to his adult life making films about protecting the seas. Manfish is sure to spark the interests of your students in oceanography and the many publicly available movies made by Cousteau and his team will only further fascinate them.
This book follows his invention of SCUBA gear and how it helped him and his team explore the seas. I love this book for Earth Day because it shows how one person’s interest in nature led to both creation and activism. The language is poetic and the illustrations are wonderful just like Berne’s other biography On a Beam Of Light about Albert Einstein.
Get my lesson plan and activities HERE
Joan Procter, Dragon Doctor by Patricia Valdez
I love this book because it provides an example of a female naturalist, and even better: she studies reptiles! Joan Procter was a woman far ahead of her time. While most young girls were having tea parties and wearing long dresses, Joan was entertaining scaly alligators and showing England what Komodo dragons were really like. This book focuses mostly on her love for reptiles and how she overcame the male-dominated science world of her time to become the Curator of Reptiles at the British Museum.
Inspiring for any aspiring scientist to study what most interests them no matter what.
Get my lesson plan and activities HERE
Shark Lady by Jess Keating
Another biography of a female scientist. This time it’s shark researcher Eugenie Clark. This book, similar to Joan Procter, Dragon Doctor, follows a young girl who wanted to study something that was not seen as ladylike, but through determination and persistence, succeeded. Eugenie Clark loved sharks since she was small and wanted to show the world how they weren’t mindless killers. Through her work, she did just that and will inspire girls to explore careers in STEM even if they are still widely dominated by boys. This book is also on my list of the best children’s books for Women’s History Month!
Get my lesson plan and activities HERE
If Sharks Disappeared
Even though sharks can be scary, we need them to keep the oceans healthy. Unfortunately, due to overfishing, many shark species are in danger of extinction, and that can cause big problems in the oceans and even on land. What would happen if this continued and sharks disappeared completely?
Get the lesson plan and activities for If Sharks Disappeared HERE
Your Place in the Universe
Most eight-year-olds are about five times as tall as this book . . . but only half as tall as an ostrich, which is half as tall as a giraffe . . . twenty times smaller than a California Redwood! How do they compare to the tallest buildings? To Mt. Everest? To stars, galaxy clusters, and . . . the universe? This is a great book for students to realize just how unique our planet is and to truly appreciate how small we are in such an enormous universe.
Get the lesson plan and activities for Your Place in the Universe HERE
The Tree Lady by H. Joseph Hopkins
Can you tell that I’m the father of a daughter yet? This new biography tells the story of Kate Sessions and her love for trees. Similar to the book above about Jadav Payeng growing a forest, Kate Sessions moved to San Diego which, at the time, was a desert, and turned it into the tree-filled oasis that is now is. This book shows how one person’s passion and work can completely transform a community. It is never too late to start changing the world.
Get my lesson plan and activities HERE
The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry
The Great Kapok Tree embodies classic in terms of books about conservation and preserving ecosystems. This book shows how animals in a rainforest attempt to persuade a man to not chop down the tree that is home to them all. This is a favorite mentor text of mine, and if you aren’t sure what I mean by “mentor text” check out my article about them. This book is perfect for science, literacy and persuasive language.
This book is also stupendously available in Spanish as El gran capoquero.
Get my lesson plan and activities HERE
Mario and the Hole in the Sky
Mexican American Mario Molina is a modern-day hero who helped solve the ozone crisis of the 1980s. Growing up in Mexico City, Mario was a curious boy who studied hidden worlds through a microscope. As a young man in California, he discovered that CFCs, used in millions of refrigerators and spray cans, were tearing a hole in the earth’s protective ozone layer. Mario knew the world had to be warned–and quickly. Today Mario is a Nobel laureate and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His inspiring story gives hope in the fight against global warming.
Get the lesson plan and activities for Mario and the Hole in the Sky HERE
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
Wait, did I call The Great Kapok Tree a classic? This is one of my all time favorite read alouds. This book is perfect for younger students and the connection between the tree and the planet is one that is easy for even young learners to make. I love this book for analyzing characters as well as comparing and contrasting.
And part of what makes this book one of my fave reads is that it’s in Spanish as El arbol generoso.
Get my lesson plan and activities HERE
City Green
Right in the middle of Marcy’s city block is a vacant lot, littered and forlorn. Sometimes just looking at it makes Marcy feel sad. Then one spring, Marcy has a wonderful idea: Instead of a useless lot, why not a green and growing space for everyone to enjoy? With her warm, hopeful text and inviting illustrations, DyAnne Disalvo-Ryan shows how a whole neighborhood blossoms when people join together and get involved to create a community garden.
Get the lesson plan and activities for City Green HERE
Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis mellifera
A tiny honeybee emerges through the wax cap of her cell. Driven to protect and take care of her hive, she cleans the nursery and feeds the larvae and the queen. But is she strong enough to fly? Not yet! Apis builds wax comb to store honey, and transfers pollen from other bees into the storage. She defends the hive from invaders. And finally, she begins her new life as an adventurer.
The confining walls of the hive fall away as Apis takes to the air, finally free, in a brilliant double-gatefold illustration where the clear blue sky is full of promise– and the wings of dozens of honeybees, heading out in search of nectar to bring back to the hive. Back material highlights the plight of the honeybee and our need to protect them.
Get the lesson plan and activities for Honeybee HERE
A Stone Sat Still
A Stone Sat Still tells the story of a seemingly ordinary rock—but to the animals that use it, it is a resting place, a kitchen, a safe haven…even an entire world. This is a gorgeous exploration of perspective, perception, and the passage of time, with an underlying environmental message that is timely and poignant.
Get the lesson plan and activities for A Stone Sat Still HERE
Our Tree Named Steve
After the family spares him from the builders, Steve the tree quickly works his way into their lives. He holds their underwear when the dryer breaks down, he’s there when Adam and Lindsay get their first crushes, and he’s the centerpiece at their outdoor family parties. With a surprising lack of anthropomorphizing, this is a uniquely poignant celebration of fatherhood, families, love, and change.
Get the lesson plan and activities for Our Tree Named Steve HERE
Bloom Boom! by April Pulley Sayre
When spring arrives, flowers of all kinds sprout and grow buds and bloom. Sometimes, they bloom a few at a time. But other times, many will bloom at once in a colorful flower boom! This photographic exploration of flowers goes from the desert to the woodlands and beyond, celebrating their beautiful variety and the science behind these colorful displays.
Thank You Earth by April Pulley Sayre
A stunning exploration of the beauty and complexity of the world around us. Remarkable photographs and a rich, layered text introduce concepts of science, nature, geography, biology, poetry, and community, perfect for classrooms and homeschooling. This nonfiction picture book is ideal for Earth Day and for celebrating the planet all year long.
Here We Are by Oliver Jeffers
This book, I just love to read and enjoy. There’s something about Oliver Jeffers’ whimsical style that just makes me smile and has kids in stitches. This book is a brilliant look at our planet that is perfect for the primary grades to give them a little bit better understanding of our world. A book that just breathes fun and wonder.
And, as in all of my good buddy Oliver Jeffers’s books, it’s in Spanish as Aqui estamos.
Conclusion
There are MANY other awesome books for Earth Day or just for environmental awareness, but these are certainly some of my favorites. Whether you want to inspire your students to start making a small change or give them an example of a future career in the natural sciences or teach them lesson to hold onto for the rest of their lives, these books are must reads.
DID I MISS ANY REALLY GOOD PICTURE BOOKS FOR EARTH DAY?
Let me know in the comments!
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