Preschool
Albert, Richard E. Alejandro's Gift.
Lonely in his house beside a road in the desert, Alejandro builds an oasis to attract the many animals around him. E ALB
Brown, Peter. The Curious Garden.
Liam discovers a hidden garden and with careful tending spreads color throughout the gray city E BRO
Burton, Virginia Lee. The Little House.
A country house is unhappy when the city, with all its buildings and traffic, grows up around her. E BUR
Cooney, Barbara. Miss Rumphius.
As a child Great-aunt Alice Rumphius resolved that when she grew up she would go to faraway places, live by the sea in her old age, and do something to make the world more beautiful--and she does all those things, the last being the most difficult of all. E COO
Johnson, D.B. Henry Hikes to Fitchburg.
While his friend works hard to earn the train fare to Fitchburg, young Henry Thoreau walks the thirty miles through woods and fields, enjoying nature and the time to think great thoughts. E JOH
Lin, Grace. The Ugly Vegetables.
A little girl thinks her mother's garden is the ugliest in the neighborhood until she discovers that flowers might look and smell pretty but Chinese vegetable soup smells best of all. E LIN
Martin, Bill. I Love Our Earth.
Photographs of nature in all its splendor and children's faces from around the world are paired with a joyous tribute to the Earth's colors, climates, and seasons. E MAR
Rylant, Cynthia. Scarecrow.
Although made of straw and borrowed clothes, a scarecrow appreciates his peaceful, gentle life and the privilege of watching nature at work. E RYL
Seuss, Dr. The Lorax.
The story of the greedy Once-ler, who ignores the Lorax's warnings and chops down all the Truffula trees, causing a local pollution problem. E SEU
Van Allsburg, Chris. Just a Dream.
When he has a dream about a future Earth devastated by pollution, Walter realizes the importance of taking care of the environment. GOLDSTAR VAN
Younger Readers
Adler, David A. Cam Jansen and the Green School Mystery.
On Green Day, Cam and her classmates discuss ways to protect the environment, but when money collected for the school's new skylights vanishes, she uses her photographic memory to solve the mystery. J-M ADL
Chin, Jason. Island: A Story of the Galapagos.
An island is about to be born- one that in time will become the home of plants and animals that exist nowhere else on Earth. This book is the biography of a Galápagos island- from birth, through adolescence, to adulthood, and beyond. J 508.866 CHI
Gutman, Dan. Ms. Hannah is Bananas.
A.J. and his friends in the second grade learn that art can be made out of anything, even garbage. J GUT
Herzog, Brad. S is for Save the Planet: A How-to-Be Green Alphabet.
Details the many enviromental issues we face and then suggests simple actions that anyone can take. From the particulars of vermicomposting and xeriscaping, to the the three R's of responsible waste management, readers learn how they can be a force of nature in protecting the earth for generations to come. J 333.72 HER
McDonald, Megan. Judy Moody Saves the World.
When Judy Moody gets serious about protecting the environment, her little brother Stink thinks she is overdoing it, but she manages to inspire her third grade class to undertake an award-winning, environment-saving project. J MCD
Silverstein, Shel. The Giving Tree.
A young boy grows to manhood and old age experiencing the love and generosity of a tree which gives to him without thought of return. E SIL
Yaccarino, Dan. The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau.
The incredible life of this deep-sea explorer is presented through a review of his early inspirations and fascinations with the ocean, his famous dives, the equipment he invented, the films and television shows he created, and his dedication to improving the environment for the animals he loved. E-B COUSTEAU
Older Readers
Applegate. The One and Only Ivan.
When Ivan, a gorilla who has lived for years in a down-and-out circus-themed mall, meets Ruby, a baby elephant that has been added to the mall, he decides that he must find her a better life. J APP
Burnet, Frances Hodgson. The Secret Garden.
A ten-year-old orphan comes to live in a lonely house on the Yorkshire moors where she discovers an invalid cousin and the mysteries of a locked garden. J BUR
French, Susannah. Operation Redwood.
In northern California, Julian Carter-Li and his friends old and new fight to save a grove of redwoods from an investment company that plans to cut them down. J-ADV FRE
George, Jean Craighead. Frightful’s Mountain.
As she grows through the first years of her life in the Catskill Mountains of New York, a peregrine falcon called Frightful interacts with various humans, including the boy who raised her, a falconer who rescues her, and several unscrupulous poachers, as well as with many animals that are part of the area's ecological balance. J GEO
Giff, Patricia Reilly. Lily’s Crossing.
During a summer spent at Rockaway Beach in 1944, Lily's friendship with a young Hungarian refugee causes her to see the war and her own world differently. J-HF GIF
Hahn, Mary Downing. The Doll in the Garden: A Ghost Story.
After Ashley and Kristi find an antique doll buried in old Miss Cooper's garden, they discover that they can enter a ghostly turn-of-the-century world by going through a hole in the hedge. J-FAN
Hamilton, Virginia. M.C. Higgins the Great.
As a slag heap, the result of strip mining, creeps closer to his house in the Ohio hills, fifteen-year-old M.C. is torn between trying to get his family away and fighting for the home they love. J-PBK HAM
Hannigan, Katherine. Ida B : ... and her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (possibly) Save the World.
Fourth-grader Ida B spends happy hours being home-schooled and playing in her family's apple orchard, until circumstances force her parents to sell part of the orchard and send her to public school. J HAN
Holling, Clancy. Paddle-to-the-Sea.
An Indian figure in a canoe carved by a young Indian in the Nipigon country north of the Great Lakes travels through all of the Great Lakes and down the St. Lawrence River before he reaches the sea. J HOL
Hiaasen, Carl. Hoot.
Roy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved in another boy's attempt to save a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction site. YA-PBK HIA
Kelly, Jacqueline. The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate.
In central Texas in 1899, eleven-year-old Callie Vee Tate is instructed to be a lady by her mother, learns about love from her six brothers, and studies the natural world with her grandfather. J-HF KEL
Long, Denise. Survivor Kid : A Practical Guide to Wilderness Survival.
Presents a guide to wilderness survival in both common and unusual situations, including how to build a shelter, find water and food, deal with dangerous animals, and navigate in the wild. J 613.69 LON
Pearce, Philippa. Tom’s Midnight Garden.
Tom finds himself in the midst of a strange adventure involving a garden that appears only at night and a girl from another time. J-PBK PEA
Ransom, Candice F. Giant in the Garden.
When Alex, Mattie, and Sophie climb the giant vine sprouting in their garden, they reach a castle in the sky and discover that they are in a fairy tale. J-ADV RAN
Rocklin, Joanne. One Day and One Amazing Morning on Orange Street.
The last remaining orange tree on a Southern California street brings together neighbors of all ages as they face their problems and anxieties, including the possibility that a mysterious stranger is a threat to their tree. J ROC
Ross, Kathy. All New Crafts for Earth Day.
Presents over twenty simple craft projects for Earth Day that young children can make from everyday materials. J 745.5 ROS
St. John, Lauren. The White Giraffe.
After a fire kills her parents, eleven-year-old Martine must leave England to live with her grandmother on a wildlife game reserve in South Africa, where she befriends a mythical white giraffe. J STJ
Simon, Seymour. Seymour Simon’s Extreme Earth Records.
Explores the extreme parts of the planet, from the driest desert and the snowiest mountains to the deepest depths of the ocean and the highest waterfalls. J 550 SIM |