Eco Child’s Play

I have two little girls, and I am NOT a fan of frightening picture books about environmentalism. At my girls’ young ages, their time is best spent learning to know and love nature, as well as internalizing such family activities as recycling and conserving energy, and leaving the bad stuff to us adults for a little while longer.

The time will come, however, when they’re a little older, when they’ll want to understand problems like pollution and extinction and global warming, and it will be my reluctant responsibility to give them some answers (if not some justification—that’s impossible). Although I’m a stay-at-home mom and not a librarian these days, I like to use my library science degree to create these reader’s guides to keep up with the best eco-friendly reading materials accessible to our children. Here are five books that manage to discuss environmentalism, both our earth’s problems and positive solutions to those problems, without being too frightening for young readers:

• » See also: Grow Your Own Tree Hugger: 101 Activities to Teach Your Child How to Live Green
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• Environmental Science Fair Projects by Thomas R. Rybolt and Robert C. Mebane. Experiments for older children to demonstrate both positive aspects of environmentalism, such as solar energy, and negative aspects, such as pollution and global warming. Offers older children a concrete, hands-on understanding of environmental problems without being overwhelming or frightening.
• Eco-Fun by David Suzuki and Kathy Vanderlinden. Geared for younger children than Environmental Science Fair Projects, and even younger children with an adult’s assistance, these projects are simpler and have the added advantage of getting children outdoors more and more focused on nature, with projects such as terrariums and water wheels.
• Planet Patrol: A Kids’ Action Guide to Earth Care by Marybeth Lorbiecki. A colorful, well-photographed book that is careful to pair gently-worded negative information about subjects such as pollution and animal extinction with both positive information and positive actions that children and their families can take. Includes sometimes overlooked topics like local farming and national parks.
• Earth Matters: An Encyclopedia of Ecology. An environmentalism-oriented children’s ecology encyclopedia, that covers habitats, ecosystems, and biological diversity as well as subjects such as pollution in a reference format suitable for older children or very interested younger ones.
• Ten Things I Can Do to Help My World by Melanie Walsh. Geared toward very small children, this book includes the familiar things that most of us already do, such as turning off lights and recycling, and connects them to the broader concept of working for the good of our planet.

Have you come across any good children’s books about environmentalism?

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