We know, we know, it’s amazon prime day. If you’re in the shopping mood, below are a few of our favorite nature books for kids.
We feel that it’s very important to have an understanding of and appreciation for the natural world, and we believe that both of those things should start as early as possible in a child’s life.
One of the easiest ways to help children learn about nature is to spend time outdoors. Most children are naturally curious, and as they play and explore in nature, they will begin to ask questions about plants and animals, the habitats and ecosystems where they live, and the larger world around them. This is a great time to begin answering those questions and to work together to research the answers when they are unknown to either of you.
And that leads to our second way to help children learn about the natural world and our relationship with it : books!
Books are obviously a great resource for teaching children. They are a reference when helping to answer a child’s questions, and they can provide insights into places and times that we’ve never been, which is awesome for awakening a child’s imagination. Of course, that will likely raise more questions, and the cycle continues!
Below are a few of our current favorite nature books for kids. Some of these are straight-up reference guides, while others provide that magical view into another world (because how many of us have actually seen the hidden world of animals under the snow or experienced the immense pressure and heat at the center of the Earth?!).
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Nature Books for Kids
The Street Beneath my Feet – a beautifully illustrated book about the man-made and natural world beneath our feet. The first half of the book focuses on man-made systems and relics that can be found under modern cities. The second half of the book focuses on the geology of the world starting at the inner core and moving out to the Earth’s crust.
A River Runs Wild – The story of a river from when it ran clean and was used by the Nashua people through the construction of a polluting paper mill, to the eventual clean-up and restoration. It’s a pollution case-study that’s appropriately told for children, but that we can all learn from, and that can lead to great discussions with kids about what we can all do to restore natural habitats that we’ve damaged.
The Over & Under Series – In highlighting animal and plant activity over and under a given surface, I love that these books review animal behaviors that young readers may be familiar with (birds pulling worms from the soil, loons swimming on a pond), and then they are introduced to the hidden activities of animals under water, under the snow, and under the soil. We have Over and Under the Pond, Over and Under the Snow, and Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt in our library. I also appreciate a good season-specific book, and rotate them through story-time when the season is right.
Winter Bees – a book of poems about how different animals survive the winter. The illustrations are captivating, and provide both a rich vocabulary and pertinent facts about how a variety of animals from snakes and moose to foxes and bees survive the long, cold, and snowy winter.
Field Guide – don’t forget the power of a good old field guide. If your kiddo loves insects, butterflies, birds, reptiles, cuddly and scary mammals, then it’s likely that they’ll go bonkers for a field guide. Plus, learning how to use field guides can become a valuable first step when teaching your children how to research the answers to their questions.
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We hope you take the time to check these books out at your local library or pick them up at your favorite book store. And if you have some favorite nature books for kids, we would love to hear about them in the comments.