Best Children's Nature Books

In WWII times, Adolf Hitler ordered the book burned in Nazi Germany, while Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, granted it privileged status as the only non-communist children's book allowed in Poland. Ferdinand is a little bull who much prefers sitting quietly under a cork tree-- just smelling the flowers--to jumping around, snorting, and butting heads with other bulls. In a show of bovine irony, the one day Ferdinand is most definitely not sitting quietly under the cork tree (due to a frightful sting), is the selfsame day that five men come to choose the "biggest, fastest, roughest bull" for the bullfights in Madrid.

Pulitzer Prize winner Jane Smiley’s first picture book, illustrated by Caldecott Honor artist Lauren Castillo, evokes the splashy fun of the beach and the quietude of a moonlit night, with twenty yawns sprinkled in for children to discover and count. Lucy’s sense of solitude is sharpened as she sees her drawings hanging on her bedroom wall: “Everyone in the pictures seemed to be watching her—Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Elizabeth, Mom, and Dad.” But this haunted moment passes, and by the time Lucy has put her beloved stuffed animals to bed, she’s calm and ready for sleep.

From bestselling and award-winning author Sara Pennypacker comes a beautifully wrought, utterly compelling novel about the powerful relationship between a boy and his fox. He strikes out on his own despite the encroaching war, spurred by love, loyalty, and grief, to be reunited with his fox.

Hot melted rock from the middle of our planet forces its way up through cracks in the Earth’s crusts, exploding violently and sometimes unexpectedly in volcanic fury that can terrorize populations for months, even years. ANNE SCHREIBER is a graduate in Science Education from Cornell University and began her career as an elementary school teacher.

This Newbery Honor-winning, hilarious Floridian adventure involves new kids, bullies, alligators, eco-warriors, pancakes, pint-sized owls, and more. Characteristically quirky characters and comic twists will surely gain the author new fans, though their attention may wander during his narrative's intermittently protracted focus on several adults, among them a policeman and the manager of a construction site for a new franchise of a pancake restaurant chain. Both men are on a quest to discover who is sabotaging the site at night, including such pranks as uprooting survey stakes, spray-painting the police cruiser's windows while the officer sleeps within and filling the portable potties with alligators. The story's most intriguing character is the boy behind the mischief, a runaway on a mission to protect the miniature owls that live in burrows underneath the site. Roy, who has recently moved to Florida from Montana, befriends the homeless boy (nicknamed Mullet Fingers) and takes up his cause, as does the runaway's stepsister.

After Billy Bee falls asleep on leaf, he drifts far away downstream and wakes up to a place he has never been before. At first he is surrounded by dark trees, creepy sounds, and snapping twigs, but then he meets a whimsical character named Jolly Jillie that leads him to safety. In this first book of “The Adventures of Billy Bee” series, children read about the true power of love, friendship, and self-belief. There are several hidden pictures in the book: Two chickens, two rabbits, three dogs, a spider, a fish, and two cats. Peter's belief in his message coupled with a genuine desire to make a difference in children's lives is easily visible in his stories. Principal / Fred C. Underhill School / NH. As a teacher and a first time mom- to- be, it is important for me to select literature, which will teach my students to be better people. She asks me to read it to her several times a day , and she also loves Callie's Wish (coming soon). She is only two now, so I'm not sure if she understands the valuable message in this book yet, but I know we will be reading this series for years to come, and soon my infant son Tristan will also love it. This story is one in five in the Adventures of Billy Bee ® children's book series and the first one to be released digitally with Kindle. It has always been a special one for me because I wrote this one for my wife Gilda, or as we all call her Gillie, (sounds like Jillie, hence "Jolly Jillie"). The story evolved into more than I ever could have imagined that day in traffic.

But years later when she returns home, she is shocked to see whole forests being cut down, and she knows that soon all the trees will be destroyed. This true story of Wangari Maathai, environmentalist and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, is a shining example of how one woman’s passion, vision, and determination inspired great change. Like Claire A. Nivola’s Planting the Trees of Kenya (2008), this powerful picture-book biography introduces Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai, winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. As in Nivola’s title, Winter follows her charismatic subject from her rural Kenyan childhood to her adult life as the founder of the Green Belt Movement, which has profoundly improved her country’s health and economy. As in her other similarly formatted picture books, such as The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq (2005), Winter’s acrylic paintings employ rich, opaque hues and elemental shapes that illustrate specific details while conveying a broader sense of her subject’s remarkable influence.

From dazzling gemstones to sparkling crystals to molten lava, this brilliantly illustrated book introduces children to the exciting world of rocks and minerals, including both the building blocks and the bling. This high-interest, educationally vetted series of beginning readers features the magnificent images of National Geographic, accompanied by texts written by experienced, skilled children's book authors. Since then she has written over 60 natural science and history books for young readers, and been awarded honors by the NSTA/CBC, the NCSS/CBC, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Library Association, the IRA/CBC Children’s Choice.

It is only through a series of mysterious encounters -- with a ghostly white dog and a mute boy -- that Green relearns the lessons of love and begins to heal as she tells her own story. The contrast between her original faith in the promise of the future and her later acknowledgment of the tentative nature of reality is vividly and eloquently portrayed. Renee Steinberg, Fieldstone Middle School, Montvale, NJ Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. Gr. Hoffman's latest fable for teens begins with an apocalyptic scene that mirrors the events of 9/11: a girl watches as her city across the river explodes into smoke and fire, and people leap from buildings. Faced with grief and an anarchic world, Green finds solace in the brittle numbness of daily tasks and in the pain of the tattoos that she begins to draw on herself.

From dazzling gemstones to sparkling crystals to molten lava, this brilliantly illustrated book introduces children to the exciting world of rocks and minerals, including both the building blocks and the bling. This high-interest, educationally vetted series of beginning readers features the magnificent images of National Geographic, accompanied by texts written by experienced, skilled children's book authors. Since then she has written over 60 natural science and history books for young readers, and been awarded honors by the NSTA/CBC, the NCSS/CBC, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Library Association, the IRA/CBC Children’s Choice.

National Geographic Kids First Big Book of the Ocean is an adorable animal reference that includes the sea's high-interest animals, such as dolphins, sharks, sea otters, and penguins, and introduces kids to some of its lesser-known creatures. “Equally suitable for quick dips or lengthy dives, this gallery of ocean dwellers will attract schools of newly fledged readers.” -- Kirkus Reviews , starred review. “A delightful, age-appropriate introduction to ocean creatures big and small.” – Children’s Book Council.

Universal in its appeal, the story has become a favorite of millions, as it reveals a child's wonder at a new world, and the hope of capturing and keeping that wonder forever. "Ezra Jack Keats's classic The Snowy Day , winner of the 1963 Caldecott Medal, pays homage to the wonder and pure pleasure a child experiences when the world is blanketed in snow. The Snowy Day , a 1963 Caldecott Medal winner, is the simple tale of a boy waking up to discover that snow has fallen during the night. Now in a sturdy board-book format just right for youngest readers, Ezra Jack Keats's classic The Snowy Day, winner of the 1963 Caldecott Medal, pays homage to the wonder and pure pleasure a child experiences when the world is blanketed in snow.