This picture book by Lisa Westberg Peters and illustrated by Danielle Ridolfi adopts a new perspective: the plants’ own! Here, the plants themselves dispel the notion that they “just stand around all day with our roots stuck in the ground” by explaining how they convert sunlight to food or collaborate with other species, like monarch butterflies, to flourish. Accompanied by Ridolfi’s delightful collages, We Can Hear Without Ears celebrates all that plants can do—and asks us humans what we might learn from plants ourselves.
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The first book in a series by celebrated British children’s author and scholar Katherine Rundell, Impossible Creatures marks a new entry in the tradition of melding environmental themes with the fantasy genre. Two children, Christopher and Mal, team up to save an enchanted archipelago where magic is mysteriously fading—and where the magical creatures that call the islands home are dying. Read allegorically as a tale of climate crisis, the novel prompts questions about hope, despair, and responsibility in the face of ecological devastation, while framing human desire for power and control as environmentally harmful.  
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Written by Melina Mangal and illustrated by Ken Daley, Jayden’s Impossible Garden features a young Black boy named Jayden living in a city. Though his mother tells him that “there’s no nature here in the middle of the city,” Jayden learns to find nature in his urban environment by cultivating a garden with his neighbor, Mr. Curtis. The picture book emphasizes the idea that nature is everywhere—even in cities!—and includes a guide on how to create upcycled planters to encourage readers to plant their own gardens.
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Inspired by environmental movements led by Indigenous communities, the picture book We Are Water Protectors (2020) celebrates the importance of water and invites readers to take part in safeguarding this precious resource. A young water protector must save her community’s water from a black snake (an oil pipeline). Accompanying the text by Carole Lindstrom are beautiful illustrations by Michaela Goade, which garnered the picture book the 2021 Caldecott Medal. The book includes author and illustrator notes reflecting on movements like the Standing Rock Sioux’s protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline and Indigenous perspectives on water.
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“Once upon a time, words began to vanish from the language of children”—literally. This fairytale-like opening to The Lost Words (2017) alludes to the real-life removal of nature words like “kingfisher” and “bluebell” from a children’s dictionary. As a response to this erasure, The Lost Words presents an alternative dictionary of sorts with poems from “acorn” to “wren.” Described as spells, these poems not only preserve the names of nature but also conjure up these creatures and plants: they insist on nature’s place in our imagination and in our world. The Lost Words has been followed up by The Lost Spells and a musical ensemble called Spell Songs that has adapted some of the poems into songs. Between the poetry, the illustrations, and the music, The Lost Words invites considerations into the ways different artistic forms and media can engage with the environment.
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Written and illustrated by Lynne Cherry, this 1990 picture book dedicated to Brazilian environmentalist Chico Mendes tackles deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. A tired woodcutter dozes off while trying to chop down a giant kapok tree. As he sleeps, different creatures who live in the tree come to whisper in his ear, trying to persuade him to spare the tree. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt released a thirtieth anniversary edition for The Great Kapok Tree in 2020, underscoring the picture book’s enduring appeal and continuing relevance today. Cherry herself is an environmentalist and has remained dedicated to supporting youth involvement in environmental activism, founding the organization Young Voices for the Planet.
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Published one year after Earth Day was first instituted in April 1970, the beloved Dr. Seuss book has been widely recognized as a cautionary tale about greed and environmental destruction. The Lorax tells the story of how the greedy Once-ler chops down the Truffula Trees for his business, while the Lorax warns him against such decisions. The Once-ler’s actions lead to pollution and the disappearance of the Lorax, who leaves behind a message urging readers to take action to protect the environment.
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This beloved British children’s novel by writer Kenneth Grahame features animals as its central characters, following the adventures of Mole, Ratty, Badger, and Mr. Toad. Grahame was noted for his own love for the natural world, and the novel accordingly depicts an idyllic countryside environment, even presenting nature itself as spiritually imbued. However, aspects of the narrative—notably Mr. Toad’s obsession with motorcars and reckless driving —allude to the encroaching dangers of industrialization. Indeed, The Wind in the Willows was actually published at a time when industrialization was well under way in Britain. The novel’s ability to evoke a nostalgic attachment to a natural world threatened by industrialization has remained powerful even today, over a century after its initial publication: a 2019 ad in the UK for the Wildlife Trusts campaign featured characters from The Wind in the Willows facing the loss of their habitats due to human construction and pollution.
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