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Just a
few of the many great books at various reading levels.
(Many award winners on this list)
Note: I have not double checked the current print status of some of the
older books.
1. Do
Animals Have Feelings, Too? (A
Sharing Nature with Children Book) by David Rice, Dawn Publications,
1999
(Amazon.com
currently has an incorrect review on their website) A summary from my
local library's catalog: "Through facts and anecdotes, investigates
the question of whether animals experience feelings such as compassion,
loyalty, grief, joy, vengefulness, and helpfulness" A description
from the publisher's website: "Do animals have feelings? Until
recently most scientists didn't think so. They thought that most animals
behave instinctively - that they don't have feelings such as happiness,
sadness, grief, vengefulness, or compassion. Many scientists are now
changing their minds. Close observation of animals is tending to show
that animals may have feelings quite similar to human feelings. This
collection of true animal behavior, witnessed by naturalists and others,
is both heartwarming and thought-provoking."
2. Books
by Jean Craighead George!!
Many,
many great books; picture books, novels, various types of nonfiction,
stories, ecological mysteries... all about animals and the environment.
My favorite is Who
Really Killed Cock Robin?
(An ecological
mystery)
3. Books
by Lynn Cherry! (A
sampling below)
* The
Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rainforest
(The many different animals that live in a great kapok tree in the
Brazilian rainforest try to convince a man with an ax of the importance
of not cutting down their home);
* Flute's Journey:
The Life of a Woodthrush
(A young wood thrush makes his first migration from his nesting ground
in a forest preserve in Maryland to his winter home in Costa Rica and
back again);
* The Dragon and
the Unicorn
(environmental
using fantasy creatures-- Valerio the dragon and Allegra the unicorn are
driven into hiding when humans begin to destroy the natural beauty of
their land, but they receive hope when they befriend the daughter of the
man responsible);
* A River Ran Wild:
An Environmental
History
(An environmental history of the Nashua River, from its discovery by
Indians through the polluting years of the Industrial Revolution to the
ambitious clean-up that revitalized it)
* The Shaman's
Apprentice: A Tale of the Amazon Rainforest
(Kamanya believes in the shaman's wisdom about the healing properties of
plants found in the Amazon rain forest and hopes one day to be a healer
for his people)
4. The books of
Barbara Bash (Samples
below)
* Ancient Ones: The
World of the Old-Growth Douglas Fir,
Sierra Club Bks. for Children, 1994
* In the Heart of
the Village: The Indian Banyan Tree,
ditto, 1996
* Shadows of Night:
The Hidden World of the Little Brown Bat,
ditto, 1993
* Tree of Life: The
World of the African Baobab,
Little, Brown, 1989
* Urban Roosts:
Where Birds Nest in the City,
Little Brown, 1990
5.
Come Back, Salmon:
How a Group of
Dedicated Kids Adopted Pigeon Creek and Brought It Back to Life by Molly
Cone, Sierra Club
Books for Children, 1992 (Describes the efforts of the Jackson
Elementary School in Everett, Washington, to clean up a nearby stream,
stock it with salmon, and preserve it as an unpolluted place where the
salmon could return to spawn)
6.
Books by Byrd Baylor
(Samples below)
* The
Desert is Theirs
* Desert Voices
* Everybody Needs a Rock
* Hawk, I'm Your Brother
* The Other Way to Listen
* The Way to Start a Day
* When Clay Sings
7. Chattanooga Sludge by
Molly Bang, Harcourt Brace, 1996 (Cleaning up human waste using
organisms, bacteria and plants)
8. City Green by
Dyanne DiSalvo-Ryan, Morrow Junior Books, 1994
(Marcy and Miss Rosa start a campaign to clean up an empty lot and turn
it into a community garden)
9. Seedfolks by
Paul Fleishman, HarperCollins, 1997
(One by one, a number of people of varying ages and backgrounds
transform a trash-filled inner-city lot into a productive and beautiful
garden, and in doing so, the gardeners are themselves transformed)
10.
Out of Sight Out of Mind
by Claude LaPointe, Harcourt Brace, 1995 (Picture book; kids stay inside
because nothing happens outside, meanwhile the reader sees many things
happening outside of the children's house)
11. The Bat in My Pocket:
A Memorable Friendship by
Amanda Lollar, Capra Press, orig. ed. 1992, has been updated since.
12. Bat Time
by Ruth Horowitz, Macmillan, 1991
(Before she goes to bed, Leila shares a special moment with her father,
watching bats enjoying an insect feast in the backyard)
13. Choices for Our
Future: A Generation Rising for Life on Earth
by Ocean Robbins & Sol Solomon (founders of Yes!: Youth for
Environmental Sanity)
14. A
Weed is a Seed by
Ferida Wolf, Houghton Mifflin, 1996
(Pairs of rhyming verses show that such things in the natural world as
weeds, a breeze, sand, and ice can be seen both positively and
negatively)
15. A
Child's Garden: Enchanting Outdoor Spaces for Children and Parents
by Molly Dannenmeier; Simon & Schuster, 1998
16. Beastly Abodes: Homes for Birds, Bats, Butterflies & Other
Backyard Wildlife
by Bobbe Needham, Sterling Pubs., 1995
17.
Kid Heroes of the Environment published
by the EarthWorks Group, 1991 (pubs. of 50 Simple Things You Can
Do...)
Out of print?
The following are out of print but are available through many libraries
and/or used book stores
18.
Oak & Company
by Richard Mabey, Greenwillow Books, 1983
19. The Forgotten
Forest by Laurence
Anholt, Sierra Club Books for Children, 1992
20. Stop That
Noise! by Paul
Geraghty, Crown Pubns., 1993-used book stores or libraries, as is
out of print From Publishers Weekly "High up in the great green
forest, the sun began to rise. Way down in the deep, dark shadows, a
tree mouse was curling up to sleep." In fluid, occasionally poetic
prose interrupted by the often harsh sounds of rainforest fauna,
Geraghty unfolds his ecological tale of a nocturnal mouse trying to
sleep amidst the diurnal din. After several unheeded pleas to "stop
that noise!" the mouse finds the absolute stillness more disturbing
than the cacophony. The creature begs for the clamor to resume; it does,
but this time the sound heard is the thunder of a bulldozer...
If you know of a book (or music) that you would like to share with other
educators, please send a summary and any other relevant
information via
E-MAIL
or mail to Children of the Earth United - P.O. Box
258035 ~ Madison, WI 53725.
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