Earth Day, Singing, And More Great Kids’ Books!

A young Black girl finds her voice and learns to love nature on a class field trip to a park in this picture book. Tasha is new to her school and hasn’t made friends yet. On the field trip, she listens intently to Ranger Jessie as well as the sounds of nature. She discovers a turtle, explores wildflowers with friends and the ranger, and at the end of the day, she’s able to tell her teacher about everything she loves at the park. And, she has friends! This is a lovely book celebrating nature and Black voices enjoying nature. Floyd Cooper started the illustrations, but after he passed away in 2021, Daria Peoples completed them.

This is a gorgeously illustrated picture book biography of David Attenborough, perhaps the most well-known naturalist. It depicts his life through the lens of how many wild places Earth has lost during his lifetime. It opens with his birth when two-thirds of the planet was covered in wild spaces. The illustration shows a rainforest scene for two-thirds of the page spread, while one-third shows baby David with an older sibling and parents with homes and factories spouting smoke in the background. The book follows Attenborough as he falls in love with nature as a child, attends university, and begins making films about nature. It’s a really beautiful homage to his life and a call to action to preserve wild places.

This is an important middle grade graphic novel about a family whose home and small farm are burned during an Oregon wildfire. The fire was caused by kids shooting fireworks in the forest. They move to Portland, but 8th-grader Juliana is sad about not being able to bring her goats, and she’s experiencing PTSD flashbacks from the fire. She joins a conservation club to make friends, where she learns about climate change.

This is a lovely, illustrated middle grade novel-in-verse from the perspective of a young Rachel Carson. Carson first dreams of becoming a writer and then a scientist. After her sister’s death, she helps take care of her nieces and nephews. From a young age, Carson fell in love with nature, especially the ocean. This follows her life from her tween years to attending college, entwining Carson’s writing and biographical accounts with fiction. It’s a mesmerizing read and a great introduction to Carson and her conservation work. Also check out the new picture book Something About the Sky, which takes selections from an essay Carson wrote about clouds.