Good Books for Good Kids: The Earth is Our Mother

I have been known to hide my children’s books from them. My girls have a preference for doggerel, and each child has at one point fallen in love with an insipid, poorly-rhymed, awkwardly-rhythmed book that I have then had to read to them approximately 1,000 times an hour–”I’m Sally the Cow/I eat grass and hay/I sit in a field almost all day,” etc.

Fortunately, my kiddos have a voracious appetite for books, and there’s room for me to intersperse my own choices. Children’s literature is also terrific for introducing and reinforcing a value system to children, and so I’m always on the lookout for pro-breastfeeding, pro-babywearing, handicraft-oriented, environmentally sound books to positively reflect the same values that I try to model and teach. Here’s a set that encourages respect for the Earth as a nurturing entity:

• » See also: Grow Your Own Tree Hugger: 101 Activities to Teach Your Child How to Live Green
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Mother Earth by Nancy Luenn: When the Earth is our mother, then trees are her hair and birds are her songs and the swimming creatures are her dreams. This soothing book of few words goes on to suggest that it’s nice to nurture our mother not just by the usual planting trees and picking up litter, but also by feeding birds and sitting still and listening like the stones, which are our mother’s ears.

What a Wonderful World illustrated by Ashley Bryan: Made famous by the great Louis Armstrong, the reprint of this song has a bounty of vivid and busy illustrations, so much so that every two-page spread of “and I think to myself, ‘What a wonderful world!’” becomes almost a game of I Spy to find all the happy animals and blooming plants and the little puppet Louis among them.

Lessons from Mother Earth by Elaine McLeod and Colleen Wood: Instead of growing her own garden, a little girl’s very, very old grandmother takes her foraging into Mother Earth’s garden; they pick mushrooms and berries and greens while discussing seasonality and respect for nature.

Whisper from the Woods by Victoria Wirth: A very old tree (that happens to have a face) nurtures and protects and allows to grow all the seeds that fall around it, until the seeds are all grown up into a community of strong, proud trees, and when the old tree finally falls, the community of trees shelters and watches over it as it grows mossy and becomes a home for other little forest animals.

They’re a handy group of books to have for your own autumn swimming and Louis Armstrong playing and foraging and forest hiking.

What books do you use to teach your kids to love the earth?

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