21 Jul Children’s Books for a Happy, Healthy Planet
From Gambia to the Florida Keys, these books show simple yet powerful ways to take care of our amazing planet! Click on the title to place a hold through Evergreen.
One Plastic Bag by Miranda Paul
In Njau, Gambia, a girl named Isatou has a broken basket. But she needs to find a way to carry her fruit home. A plastic bag on the ground catches her eye and she scoops it up. Perfect!
Plastic bags are not rare in Njau and all their bright colors fascinate Isatou! They can be used for anything, from hauling food, to make-shift water bottles. But there are too many and they pile up everywhere.
When several of Isatou’s grandmother’s goats get sick after eating plastic bags, Isatou realizes just how dangerous plastic bags can be. What can she do to clean up her streets?
Isatou, along with her family and friends, gather the discarded plastic bags and wash them. Together, they find creative ways to recycle the bags and shape them into items that can be reused again and again!
Can you think of other ways to reuse plastic bags?
We are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom
A young Indigenous protagonist tells of the importance of water. It is medicine and life and exists in all living beings. We are all connected because of water.
But a “black snake” in the form of an oil pipeline threatens to ruin the water and poison it.
With lyrical prose and swirling, spiraling illustrations of water and earth, this brave heroine leads the way, uniting the world to protect Native-owned lands against environmental destruction.
Kate, Who Tamed the Wind by Liz Garton Scanlon & Lee White
Kate is a determined little girl, armed with a red wagon full of sapling trees. The wind is a merciless element, granting no peace to the old man who lives on the hill. The wind tears at his house, spills his breakfast tea, and steals his hat! He can’t get any peace!
So, Kate climbs the hill with her wagon of young trees in tow. She knows she can’t s top the wind but there’s something else she can do! She digs in the mud and the dirt and she plants trees. Lots and lots of trees!
As time passes, the wind continues to blow and the trees begin to grow.
Soon, the old man’s house is sheltered under a glorious canopy of leaves and branches.
This book is an excellent way for children to explore how trees can be important in other ways than providing shade and shelter. After reading, you can even celebrate by planting a tree or two of your own!
The Brilliant Deep: Rebuilding the World’s Coral Reefs by Kate Messner
For as long as Ken Nedimeyer could remember, he loved the ocean. He spent his days exploring the beaches of the Florida Keys, snorkeling and scuba diving with angelfish and sea stars.
As Ken grows up, he notices a change comes over the reefs. These habitats that used to be bursting with fish and creatures? They were barren and nearly abandoned. The coral that used to be a rainbow of colors? It was bleached white, like ghosts. Scientists didn’t know what was causing this change or how to stop it.
As an adult, Ken discovered living coral and learned how to grow even more coral in colonies. He learned how to transplant that live coral, piece by piece, into those barren, abandoned reefs. One day, the reef would be full of fresh life again!
The colorful illustrations in this non-fiction picture book bring the ocean to life, right in your hands! Challenge children to learn more about global warming’s impact on coral reefs and how they can make small changes to help the environment, like Ken did, with one step at a time!
We hope these picture books inspire you with all the different ways we can take care of our world!
