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5 Captivating Environmental Books for Children cover collage
These stories give children a sense of agency and hope, so they aren鈥檛 left feeling powerless. (Photo: Courtesy the publishers)

The 5 Best New Children鈥檚 Books About the Environment

Kids learn best through stories, and these books weave gripping tales with messages about caring for the planet

Published: 
5 Captivating Environmental Books for Children cover collage
(Photo: Courtesy the publishers)

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Whenever my four-year-old daughter, Josephine, and I visit a library, she runs straight past the children鈥檚 nonfiction section鈥攑acked with information about animals, ecosystems, and environmental issues鈥攁nd makes a beeline for the storybooks. Like most humans, her brain is hardwired to learn through stories, and her favorites involve talking animals, struggles between good and evil, and kids like her who go on adventures.

I love how these books spark her imagination. But as an environmental journalist, I also appreciate those that teach Josephine to be a good steward of the earth. Fortunately, a slew of new children鈥檚 fiction weaves together suspenseful storytelling and beautiful illustrations to introduce four-to-eight-year-olds to heavy topics like climate change, pollution, and deforestation. Most important, these books also give children a sense of agency and hope, so they aren鈥檛 left feeling powerless. Here are a few of our favorites.

Wombat Underground: A Wildfire Survival Story, Written by Sarah L. Thomson, Illustrated by Charles Santoso

Wombat Underground: A Wildfire Survival Story cover
(Photo: Courtesy Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

Living in the fire-prone American West, Josephine听is already familiar with wildfires and wildfire smoke, and she鈥檚 becoming curious about how animals withstand threats that force humans from our homes. is set in Australia and shows how a variety of creatures survived听the country鈥檚听devastating 2019鈥20 wildfire season by seeking refuge in underground wombat caves. With a solid dose of drama and danger, as well as explanations at the end of the book about fires and Australian wildlife, this story presents a real-life example of how communities, both wild and human, are more resilient when they work together.

We Are Water Protectors, Written by Carole Lindstrom, Illustrated by Michaela Goade

We Are Water Protectors cover
(Photo: Courtesy Roaring Brook Press)

Author Carole Lindstrom, who is a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe, and illustrator Michaela Goade, a member of the Tlingit and Haida tribes, won the prestigious Caldecott Medal last year for . The book follows a young girl who learns of a prophecy that a 鈥渂lack snake鈥 will one day threaten her people鈥檚 water, animals, and land. When that snake arrives in the form of an oil pipeline, the girl must join her community to fight for 鈥渢hose who cannot fight for themselves: the winged ones, the crawling ones, the four-legged, the two-legged, the plants, trees, rivers, lakes.鈥

The story was inspired by the Standing Rock protests and other Indigenous-led acts of resistance, and its听poetic language and lustrous illustrations make this book applicable to any communities advocating to protect their home.

Better than New: A Recycle Tale, Written by Robert Broder, Illustrated by Lake Buckley

Better Than New: A Recycle Tale cover
(Photo: Courtesy Patagonia)

, published by Patagonia in both Spanish and English, depicts two children from a small fishing village in Chile who rescue a sea lion entangled in an abandoned fishing net. The two kids, Isidora and Julian, haul the net out of the sea and bring it to a local recycling center, where it鈥檚 made into new clothes for playing at the beach.

Recycling can be a tricky concept for little kids to grasp, so I appreciate how this book clearly shows how harmful trash can be transformed into something useful. It inspired a change in behavior in our family, from making sure we put cans in the recycling bin to turning food scraps into compost for our garden. While I applaud Patagonia鈥檚 mission to use its business to help the environment, this book鈥攚hich coincides with the release of quick-drying infant- and toddler-size shorts made from recovered fishing nets鈥攁lso feels a bit promotional.

The Keeper of Wild Words, Written by Brooke Smith, Illustrated by Madeline Kloepper

The Keeper of Wild Words cover
(Photo: Courtesy Chronicle Books)

This story tells of a grandmother and granddaughter who look for words that are in danger of disappearing form the English language. (Wren,buttercup, minnow, and monarch were听recently听 to make room for words like database and voicemail.)听The only way to keep wild words from being lost is to use them, the grandmother explains, so she takes her granddaughter on a hunt through meadows, woods, and fields to search for them.

I love that the narrative arc of is a journey, and that it so fluidly prompts kids and caregivers to search for and learn about the language of the nature听on their own. After reading it, Josephine and I went out in our neighborhood looking for sage and scrub jays, pi帽ons and ponderosas. Saying the words out loud felt like a way of paying attention to the world 听around us鈥攁nd paying attention, as we learned from the book, is the best way to ensure something isn鈥檛 lost.

Zonia鈥檚 Rain Forest, Written and Illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal

Zonia鈥檚 Rain Forest cover
(Photo: Courtesy Candlewick)

Zonia is an Indigenous听Ash谩ninka girl living in the Peruvian Amazon, enthralled by the creatures with whom she shares her world. One day she encounters a clear-cut听forest and realizes that the the rainforest needs people like her to protect it. As in听We Are Water Protectors, this book shows that the people who know a place most intimately are best suited to defend it from ill-meaning and ignorant outsiders鈥攁nd have the self-determination to do so. With vibrant illustrations printed on locally made banana-bark paper, as well as supplementary information on and a translation of the Ash谩ninka language听at the end, offers a window into a different way of life for curious children.

Lead Photo: Courtesy the publishers

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